
Class . ^ 

Book_ 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



8* 

THE 

FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES 

OF THE WORLD 
jfrom flfoaratbon to Waterloo 



BY 

SIR EDWARD CREASY, M.A. 



NEW EDITION 
TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

QUEBEC— YORKTOWN 

VICKSBURG — GETTYSBURG 

SEDAN— MANILA BAY— SANTIAGO 

TSU-SHIMA (The Sea of Japan) 

WITH MAPS 




NEW YORK AND LONDON 
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1908 






^ 



":, 









1 LIBRARY of CONGRESS] 

Two Copies Received 

OCT 22 1908 

~ Copyright Entry 
CLASS CL XXc, No, 
COP? f B. 



Copyright, 1908, by Harper & Brothers. 

All rights reserved. 
Published November, 1908. 



S>eDtcatefc 

TO 

ROBERT GORDON LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S. 

Late Fellow of King'* College, Cambridge ; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians 

London ; Member of the Ethnological Society, New York ; Late Professor of the 

English Language and Literature, in University College, London 

BY 

HIS FRIEND 

THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 



It is an honorable characteristic of the spirit of this age, that 
projects of violence and warfare are regarded among civilized 
states with gradually increasing aversion. The Universal Peace 
Society certainly does not, and probably never will, enroll the 

ajority of statesmen among its members. But even those 
who look upon the appeal of battle as occasionally unavoidable 
in international controversies concur in thinking it a deplorable 
necessity, only to be resorted to when all peaceful modes of ar- 
rangement have been vainly tried, and when the law of self- 
defence justifies a state, like an individual, in using force to 
protect itself from imminent and serious injury. For a writer, 
therefore, of the present day to choose battles for his favorite 
topic, merely because they were battles, merely because so many 
myriads of troops were arrayed in them, and so many hundreds 
or thousands of human beings stabbed, hewed, or shot each 
other to death during them, would argue strange weakness or 
depravity of mind. Yet it cannot be denied that a fearful and 
wonderful interest is attached to these scenes of carnage. 
There is undeniable greatness in the disciplined courage and in 
the love of honor which make the combatants confront agony 
and destruction. And the powers of the human intellect are 
rarely more strongly displayed than they are in the commander, 
who regulates, arrays, and wields at his will these masses of 
armed disputants ; who, cool yet daring, in the midst of peril, 
reflects on all, and provides for all, ever ready with fresh re- 
sources and designs, as the vicissitudes of the storm of slaugh- 
ter require. But these qualities, however high they may ap- 
pear, are to be found in the basest as well as in the noblest of 
mankind. Catiline was as brave a soldier as Leonidas, and a 



viii PREFACE. 

much better officer. Alva surpassed the Prince of Orange in 
the field ; and Suwarrow was the military superior of Kosciusko. 
To adopt the emphatic words of Byron — 

" 'Tis the cause makes all, 
Degrades or hallows courage in its fall." 

There are some battles, also, which claim our attention, inde* 
pendently of the moral worth of the combatants, on account of 
their enduring importance, and by reason of the practical in- 
fluence on our own social and political condition, which we can 
trace up to the results of those engagements. They have for 
us an abiding and actual interest, both while we investigate the 
chain of causes and effects by which they have helped to make 
us what we are, and also while we speculate on what we prob- 
ably should have been if any one of these battles had come to 
a different termination. Hallam has admirably expressed this 
in his remarks on the victory gained by Charles Martel, between 
Tours and Poictiers, over the invading Saracens. 

He says of it, that " it may justly be reckoned among those 
few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially 
varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes : with 
Marathon, Arbela, the Metaurus, Chalons, and Leipsic." It was 
the perusal of this note of Hallam's that first led me to the con- 
sideration of my present subject. I certainly differ from that 
great historian as to the comparative importance of some of the 
battles which he thus enumerates, and also of some which he 
omits. It is probable, indeed, that no two historical inquirers 
would entirely agree in their lists of the decisive battles of the 
world. Different minds will naturally vary in the impressions 
which particular events make on them ; and in the degree of in- 
terest with which they watch the career, and reflect on the im- 
portance, of different historical personages. But our concur- 
rence in our catalogues is of little moment, provided we learn to 
2ook on these great historical events in the spirit which Hallam's 
observations indicate. Those remarks should teach us to watch 
how the interests of many states are often involved in the col- 
lisions between a few ; and how the effect of those collisions is 
not limited to a single age, but may be given an impulse which 



PREFACE. i x 

will sway the fortunes of successive generations of mankind. 
Most valuable also is the mental discipline which is thus ac- 
quired, and by which we are trained not only to observe what 
has been and what is, but also to ponder on what might have 
been.* 

We thus learn not to judge of the wisdom of measures too 
exclusively by the results. We learn to apply the juster stand- 
ard of seeing what the circumstances and the probabilities were 
that surrounded a statesman or a general at the time when he 
decided on his plan ; we value him not by his fortune, but by 
his 7rpoatpe<TiQ, to adopt the expressive Greek word, for which 
our language gives no equivalent. 

The reasons why. each of the following fifteen battles has 
been selected will, I trust, appear when it is described. But it 
may be well to premise a few remarks on the negative tests 
which have led me to reject others which at first sight may ap- 
pear equal in magnitude and importance to the chosen fifteen. 

I need hardly remark that it is not the number of killed and 
wounded in a battle that determines its general historical im- 
portance. It is not because only a few hundreds fell in the bat- 
tle by which Joan of Arc captured the Tourelles and raised the 
siege of Orleans that the effect of that crisis is to be judged ; 
nor would a full belief in the largest number which Eastern his- 
torians state to have been slaughtered in any of the numerous 
conflicts between Asiatic rulers make me regard the engage- 
ment in which they fell as one of paramount importance to man- 
kind. But, besides battles of this kind, there are many of great 
consequence, and attended with circumstances which powerfully 
excite our feelings and rivet our attention, and yet which ap- 
pear to me of mere secondary rank, inasmuch as either their ef- 
fects were limited in area, or they themselves merely confirmed 
some great tendency or bias which an earlier battle had origi- 
nated. For example, the encounters between the Greeks and 
Persians which followed Marathon seem to me not to have 
been phenomena of primary impulse. Greek superiority had 
been already asserted, Asiatic ambition had already been 

* See Bolingbroke, " On the Study and Use of History," vol. ii., p. 497 of 
his collected works. 



c k et k ed, before Salamis and Plat*a confirmed tbe superi. 
of Europe** few states over Oriental despotism, ''^ gtt> 

w :.-.;: > . - 

:.;: ~rs: - 

only aUnggkd to retard her downfall. I think similarly of 
Zama with rosy . the Metav.- s 

and, on Ike same princip]. .bseqnc the 

Revomtkmarr war appear to roe inferior in their important 

which first determined the military character and career 

I am aware that imagination, and a slight 

exercise of Metaphysical ingenuity, may am se 

: . •« :;.-. ;h.v.: : . .r. :v>:.v :> > s. . ■. k: . - ;.::-;-:":..,:::--; 
; . - :::.-? _ 

.•;...— •;■:. v •- ':•■ v. . : ; :.sv ; V-i: : -ss:v: .V. .v. .:> ;-. ; : u a . 
to the whole order sequent events. But 

vt ":.; ; ; >- . . : - . :. : . . . ; ■ v ; . . ~ . - > . » ■ . s : - . . ;':r.;;.>.v;..i 

.-:•;'--..: ."..:-.-../ :: :"■: :s:: -Vvv. :\:\ ::':.-: r . ar.. ; . :.;: .:' ?-:"./:•; 
an.-, far . : ; .'..~: :■.>:.:. ..?.; ..:> " -.-.v. .■-.-.■.:••; :': .:. :r :'::■: 
other hand. . roach of fatalism .« hose 

• 
recognize in history n othing more lion a ~ 

which fol one npon the other, 

in this work, I r penfr of proba s, 1 speak of human 

probabilities only. When I emm use and effect, I speak 

| neral laws ant) quenoe 

of hnmtn affair^ nsnaDy regulated, and in which we 

agnine emphatically Ike wisdom and power of Ike Supreme 
La-* _ - the design of the 



INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW AND 
ENLARGED EDITION. 



The present volume contains all the text of Sir Edward 
Creasy 's Fifteen Decisive Battles. That work may be fairly 
said to have become a classic, and it Is given here complete ; but 
the value of this new edition is enhanced and rendered 
tinctive by the addition of eight decisive battles, most of which 
have been fought since Creasy 's book was written. These make 
up the second part of this new and enlarged edition. 

Sir Edward Creasy's famous work first appeared in 1851. 
The point of view indicated in his original preface shows that 
he would logically have selected and emphasized certain military 
events occurring since his first publication. Of the eight battles 
added in this edition, six were fought after 1851. The addition 
of two which might have been included within the range of 
Creasy's plan seemed essential in the light of modern his- 
torical perspective. While in his synopses he has made brief 
references to the fall of Quebec and the surrender at York- 
town, it seems obvious that the practical extinction of the pow- 
er of France on this continent and the victory which closed the 
American War for Independence are justly entitled to larger 
consideration than his plan permitted him to give. 

As to battles since 1851, much care and thought have been 
given to a selection which would be in accordance with Crea - 
general plan, and at the same time would recognize certain new 
world conditions which have arisen since his time. These may 
be summarized as the preservation of the American Union, the 
unification of the German Empire, the new responsibilities of 
the United States as a Pacific power, the final expulsion of 
Spain from the Western Hemisphere, and the definite rise of 
Japan to rank as one of the great powers with a relatively 



xii INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION 

clear field for continental expansion. These results have been 
decided wholly or in large measure by the battles described in 
the second part of this volume. Their selection, it is believed, 
is justified by the point of view which has been indicated. Very 
nearly a century has passed since Waterloo, the last of Creasy's 
fifteen battles. The limits within which the author worked 
justified his omission of our War of 1812 and Mexican War, as 
well as the minor conflicts of European powers, and these limits 
would have justified him, we believe, in passing with simple 
mention the Crimea, the Indian Mutiny, the wars for Italian 
independence, the Turco-Russian, Greco-Turkish, and Boer 
wars, and other conflicts, of which the most important, the 
struggles which gave freedom and unity to Italy, were curiously 
lacking in any single epoch-making battle which by itself could 
be regarded as wholly decisive. 

The accounts of battles newly presented in this volume are 
by historians writing from the historical point of view. As an 
example of concise military history the account of Sedan by 
the commander of the German forces possesses a peculiar in- 
terest. Vicksburg and Gettysburg have been written by a 
historian who is a veteran of the American Civil War. In 
order that the battles themselves might not appear as isolated, 
introductions and appendices have been supplied, in addition 
to the synopses, in order to preserve historical relations. 
For example, it has seemed desirable to make clear the relations 
of Spain and the United States to Cuba before the war, and 
also to explain Russia's advance to the Pacific and the menace 
to the island Empire of Japan, which lay in Russia's possession 
of the mainland, rather than to limit the chapter to Admiral 
Togo's victory alone. 

At the outset of Part II. there is presented a synopsis which 
differs from Creasy's chronology from battle to battle, inasmuch 
as it is topical. This is due to the fact that to understand the 
significance of Wolfe's victory at Quebec it is essential to bear 
in mind the development and long continuance of the struggle 
between the two nations, France and England, for North 
America, or at least for the country west of the Alleghanies, as 
well as Canada. The other synopses follow the arrangement 
adopted by Creasy. Since this is for the most part a military 
chronology, it has seemed proper that this should be defined. 



INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION xiii 

The publishers believe that the pains taken in preparing this 
new and enlarged edition— the Harper Creasy — will be appreci- 
ated by the general reader, and by the directors of public and 
of school libraries. 

September, 1908. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAOT 

The Battle of Marathon 1 

Explanatory Remarks on some of the Circumstances of the Battle of 
Marathon 31 

Synopsis of Events between the Battle of Marathon, B.C. 490, and the 
Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, b.c. 413 33 

CHAPTER II. 

Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, b.c. 413 36 

Synopsis of Events between the Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse 
and the Battle of Arbela 54 

CHAPTER III. 

The Battle of Arbela, b.c. 331 67 

Synopsis of Events between the Battle of Arbela and the Battle of 
the Metaurus 79 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Battle of the Metaurus, b.c 207 84 

Synopsis of Events between the Battle of the Metaurus, b.c. 207, and 
Arminius's Victory over the Roman Legions under Varus, a.d. 9. 112 

CHAPTER V. 

Victory of Arminics over the Roman Legions under Varus, a.d. 9. 118 

Arminius 131 

Synopsis of Events between Arminius's Victory over Varus and the 
Battle of Chalons 141 












- - - - " - ■ ' 









■ 



?. :;ri ■.'.> 









CONTENTS. xvii 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE 

Victory of the Americans over Bur-, u, a.d. 1""" 

Synopsis of Events between the Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga, 1777 
and the Battle of Valmy, 1792 ,.. , 326 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Battle op Valmy 327 

Synopsis of Events between the Battle of Valmy, 1792, and the Battle 
of Waterloo, 1815 " 341 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Battle op Waterloo, 1815 344 



PART II. 



Introductory Synopsis of the Principal Military Events in the Struggle be- 
tween the French and English in North America. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Fall of Quebec, 1759 411 

By Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D. Librarian of the Wisconsin 
State Historical Society. Author of "France in America." 

Synopsis of the Principal Events, chiefly Military, between the Battle 
of Quebec, 1759, and the Battle of Yorktown, 1781 420 



CHAPTER II. 

Yorktown and the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781 422 

The Political Effects of Yorktown. 

By Claude Halslead Van Tyne, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of 
American History, University of Michigan. Author of " The 
American Revolution." 

Synopsis cf the Principal Events, chiefly Military, between the Battle 
of Yorktown, 1781, and the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, 
1863 428 



xviii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGB 

Vicksburg, January-July, 1863 433 

By James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D. Author of "The Appeal to 
Arms" and "Outcome of the Civil War." 

CHAPTER IV. 

Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863 442 

By James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D. 

Synopsis of the Principal Events, chiefly Military, between the Battles 
of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, 1863, and the Battle of Sedan, 1870.. 458 

CHAPTER V. 

The Battle of Sedan, 1870 459 

By Field-Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke. Author of " The 
Franco-German War of 1870-71." 

Synopsis of the Principal Events, chiefly Military, between the Battle 
of Sedan, 1870, and the Battles of Manila Bay aod Santiago, 1898. . 472 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Battle of Manila Bay, 1898 474 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Battles of Santiago, 1898 482 

By John Holladay Latane, Ph.D. Professor of History, Washing- 
ton and Lee University. Author of "America as a World Power." 

Synopsis of the Principal Events, chiefly Military, between the Battles 
of Manila and Santiago, 1898, and the Battle of Tsu-Shima, or Sea 
of Japan, 1905 497 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Battle of Tsu-Shima (Sea of Japan), 1905 498 

Index 5 ^ 5 



THE 

FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES 
OF THE WORLD 

FROM MARATHON TO WATERLOO 



THE 

FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES OF 
THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

"Quibus actus uterque 
Europse atque Asiae fatis concurrent orbis." 

Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council 
of Athenian officers was summoned on the slope of one of the 
mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern 
coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to 
consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay 
encamped on the shore beneath them ; but on the result of their 
deliberations depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but 
the whole future progress of human civilization. 

There were eleven members of that council of war. Ten were 
the generals, who were then annually elected at Athens, one for 
each of the local tribes into which the Athenians were divided. 
Each general led the men of his own tribe, and each was invest- 
ed with equal military authority. One also of the Archons was 
associated with them in the joint command of the collective force. 
This magistrate was termed the Polemarch, or War-Ruler : he had 
the privilege of leading the right wing of the army in battle, and 
of taking part in all councils of war. A noble Athenian, named 
Callimachus, was the War-Ruler of this year; and, as such, stood 
listening to the earnest discussion of the ten generals. They 



2 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

had, indeed, deep matter for anxiety, though little aware how 
momentous to mankind were the votes they were about to give, 
or how the generations to come would read with interest the 
record of their debate. They saw before them the invading 
forces of a mighty empire, which had in the last fifty years shat- 
tered and enslaved nearly all the kingdoms and principalities of 
the then known world. They knew that all the resources of 
their own country were comprised in the little army intrusted 
to their guidance. They saw before them a chosen host of the 
Great King, sent to wreak his special wrath on that country, and 
on the other insolent little Greek community, which had dared 
to aid his rebels and burn the capital of one of his provinces. 
That victorious host had already fulfilled half its mission of ven- 
geance. Eretria, the confederate of Athens in the bold march 
against Sardis nine years before, had fallen in the last few days ; 
and the Athenian generals could discern from the heights the 
island of ^Egilia, in which the Persians had deposited their Ere- 
trian prisoners, whom they had reserved to be led away captives 
into Upper Asia, there to hear their doom from the lips of King 
Darius himself. Moreover, the men of Athens knew that in the 
camp before them was their own banished tyrant, Hippias, who 
was seeking to be reinstated by foreign scimitars in despotic 
sway over any remnant of his countrymen that might survive 
the sack of their town, and might be left behind as too worth- 
less for leading away into Median bondage. 

The numerical disparity between the force which the Athe- 
nian commanders had under them, and that which they were called 
on to encounter, was fearfully apparent to some of the council. 
The historians who wrote nearest to the time of the battle do 
not pretend to give any detailed statements of the numbers en- 
gaged, but there are sufficient data for our making a general esti- 
mate. Every free Greek was trained to military duty ; and, from 
the incessant border wars between the different states, few Greeks 
reached the age of manhood without having seen some service. 
But the muster-roll of free Athenian citizens of an age fit for 
military duty never exceeded thirty thousand, and at this epoch 
probably did not amount to two thirds of that number. More- 
over, the poorer portion of these were unprovided with the equip- 
ments and untrained to the operations of the regular infantry. 
Some detachments of the best armed troops would be required 
to garrison the city itself and man the various fortified posts 
in the territory ; so that it is impossible to reckon the fully 
equipped force that marched from Athens to Marathon, when 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 3 

the news of the Persian landing arrived, at higher than ten thou- 
sand men.* 

With one exception, the other Greeks held back from aiding 
them. Sparta had promised assistance ; but the Persians had 
landed on the sixth day of the moon, and a religious scruple 
delayed the march of Spartan troops till the moon should have 
reached its full. From one quarter only, and that a most un- 
expected one, did Athens receive aid at the moment of her great 
peril. 

For some years before this time, the little state of Plataea in 
Bceotia, being hard pressed by her powerful neighbor, Thebes, 
had asked the protection of Athens, and had owed to an Athe- 
nian army the rescue of her independence. Now when it was 
noised over Greece that the Mede had come from the uttermost 
parts of the earth to destroy Athens, the brave Platseans, unso- 
licited, marched with their whole force to assist in the defence, 
and to share the fortunes of their benefactors. The general 
levy of the Platseans only amounted to a thousand men ; and 
this little column, marching from their city along the southern 
ridge of Mount Cithaeron, and thence across the Attic territory, 
joined the Athenian forces above Marathon almost immediately 
before the battle. The reinforcement was numerically small ; 
but the gallant spirit of the men who composed it must have 
made it of tenfold value to the Athenians, and its presence 
must have gone far to dispel the cheerless feeling of being de- 
serted and friendless which the delay of the Spartan succors 
was calculated to create among the Athenian ranks. 

This generous daring of their weak but true-hearted ally was 
never forgotten at Athens. The Platseans were made the fellow- 
countrymen of the Athenians, except the right of exercising cer- 
tain political functions ; and from that time forth in the solemn 
sacrifices at Athens, the public prayers were offered up for a 
joint blessing from Heaven upon the Athenians, and the Platse- 
ans also.j- 

* The historians who lived long after the time of the battle, such as Justin, 
Plutarch, and others, give ten thousand as the number of the Athenian army. 
Not much reliance could be placed on their authority if unsupported by other 
evidence ; but a calculation made from the number of the Athenian free popu- 
lation remarkably confirms it. For the data of this, see Boeck's " Public 
Economy of Athens," vol. i., p. 45. Some Miroueoi probably served as Hop- 
lites at Marathon, but the number of resident aliens at Athens cannot have 
been large at this period. 

t Mr. Grote observes (vol. iv., p. 464) that " this volunteer march of the 
whole Plataean force to Marathon is one of the most affecting incidents of all 



4 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

After the junction of the column from Plataea, the Athenian 
commanders must have had under them about eleven thousand 
fully armed and disciplined infantry, and probably a larger num- 
ber of irregular light-armed troops ; as, besides the poorer citi- 
zens who went to the field armed with javelins, cutlasses, and 
targets, each regular heavy-armed soldier was attended in the 
camp by one or more slaves, who were armed like the inferior 
freemen.* Cavalry or archers the Athenians (on this occasion) 
had none ; and the use in the field of military engines was not 
at that period introduced into ancient warfare. 

Contrasted with their own scanty forces, the Greek command- 
ers saw stretched before them, along the shores of the winding 
bay, the tents and shipping of the varied nations that marched 
to do the bidding of the king of the Eastern world. The diffi- 
culty of finding transports and of securing provisions would 
form the only limit to the numbers of a Persian army. Nor is 
there any reason to suppose the estimate of Justin exaggerated, 
who rates at a hundred thousand the force which on this occa- 
sion had sailed, under the satraps Datis and Artaph ernes, from 
the Cilician shores, against the devoted coasts of Euboea and 
Attica. And after largely deducting from this total, so as to 
allow for mere mariners and camp followers, there must still 
have remained fearful odds against the national levies of the 
Athenians. Nor could Greek generals then feel that confidence 
in the superior quality of their troops which ever since the bat- 
tle of Marathon has animated Europeans in conflicts with Asi- 
atics ; as, for instance, in the after-struggles between Greece and 
Persia, or when the Roman legions encountered the myriads of 
Mithridates and Tigranes, or as is the case in the Indian cam- 
paigns of our own regiments. On the contrary, up to the day 
of Marathon the Medes and Persians were reputed invincible. 
They had more than once met Greek troops in Asia Minor, in 

Grecian history." In truth, the whole career of Plataea, and the friendship, 
strong even unto death, between her and Athens, form one of the most affect- 
ing episodes in the history of antiquity. In the Peloponnesian War the Platse- 
ans again were true to the Athenians against all risks and all calculation of 
self-interest ; and the destruction of Plataea was the consequence. There are 
few nobler passages in the classics than the speech in which the Plataean 
prisoners of war, after the memorable siege of their city, justify before their 
Spartan executioners their loyal adherence to Athens. (See Thucydides, lib. 
iii., sees. 53-60.) 

* At the battle of Plataea, eleven years after Marathon, each of the eight 
thousand Athenian regular infantry who served there was attended by a light- 
armed slave. (Herod., lib. viii., c. 28, 29.) 



BATTLE OP MARATHON: 5 

Cyprus, in Egypt, and had invariably beaten them. Nothing 
can be stronger than the expressi6us used by the early Greek 
writers respecting the terror which the name of the Medes in- 
spired, and the prostration of men's spirits before the apparently 
resistless career of the Persian arms.* It is, therefore, little to 
be wondered at that five of the ten Athenian generals shrank 
from the prospect of fighting a pitched battle against an enemy 
so superior in numbers, and so formidable in military renown. 
Their own position on the heights was strong, and offered great ■ 
advantages to a small defending force against assailing masses. 
They deemed it mere foolhardiness to descend into the plain to 
be trampled down by the Asiatic horse, overwhelmed with the 
archery, or cut to pieces by the invincible veterans of Cambyses 
and Cyrus. Moreover, Sparta, the great war-state of Greece, had 
been applied to, and had promised succor to Athens, though the 
religious observance which the Dorians paid to certain times and 
seasons had for the present delayed their march. Was it not 
wise, at any rate, to wait till the Spartans came up, and to have 
the help of the best troops in Greece, before they exposed them- 
selves to the shock of the dreaded Medes ? 

Specious as these reasons might appear, the other five generals 
were for speedier and bolder operations. And, fortunately for 
Athens and for the world, one of them was a man, not only of 
the highest military genius, but also of that energetic character 
which impresses its own type and ideas upon spirits feebler in 
conception. 

Miltiades was the head of one of the noblest houses at Athens : 
he ranked the .^Eacidae among his ancestry, and the blood of 
Achilles flowed in the veins of the hero of Marathon. One of 
his immediate ancestors had acquired the dominion of the Thra- 
cian Chersonese, and thus the family became at the same time 
Athenian citizens and Thracian princes. This occurred at the 
time when Pisistratus was tyrant of Athens. Two of the rela- 
tives of Miltiades — an uncle of the same name, and a brother 
named Stesagoras — had ruled the Chersonese before Miltiades 
became its prince. He had been brought up at Athens in the 
house of his father Cimon, , |' who was renowned throughout 

* 'AOrjvaiot 7rpu>roi clvecxovto t<jBr)Ta ts Mtj8iki)v bp'ewvreg, icai rovg avdpag 
ravTTjv taBrjfitvovg. rtiog dl fjv toZgi "EXXrjm /cat to ovvofia tojv Mrjdoov <f>6f3og 
aKovaat. — Herodotus, lib. vi., c. 112. 

At dk yvG)fiai de dovXdj/xtvai cnravriov aydponruiv i\nav. ovtuj 7ro\Xd ical /ue- 
ydXa Kai pax^a- ysvrj KaTadedovXoj/JievTi r\v r) Ilfjoow dpxU' — Plato, Menexe- 
nus. f Herodotus, lib. vi., c. 103. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

Greece for his victories in the Olympic chariot-races, and who 
st have been possessed of great wealth. The sons of Pisistra- 
tus, who succeeded their father in the tyranny at Athens, caused 
Cii ion to be assassinated,* but they treated the young Miltiades 
wii h favor and kindness ; and when his brother Stesagoras died 
A\e Chersonese, they sent him out there as lord of the prin- 
ality. This was about twenty-eight years before the battle 
i Marathon, and it is with his arrival in the Chersonese that 
first knowledge of the career and character of Miltiades 
commences. We find, in the first act recorded of him, proof of 
same resolute and unscrupulous spirit that marked his ma- 
tuns age. His brother's authority in the principality had been 
shaken by war and revolt: Miltiades determined to rule more 
irely. On his arrival he kept close within his house, as if 
he were mourning for his brother. The principal men of the 
Chersonese, hearing of this, assembled from all the towns and 
ricts, and went together to the house of Miltiades on a visit 
ondolence. As soon as he had thus got them in his power, 
nade them all prisoners. He then asserted and maintained 
his own absolute authority in the peninsula, taking into his pay 
)dy of five hundred regular troops, and strengthening his in- 
terest by marrying the daughter of the king of the neighboring 
Thracians. 

When the Persian power was extended to the Hellespont and 
its neighborhood, Miltiades, as prince of the Chersonese, sub- 
;ed to King Darius ; and he was one of the numerous trib- 
utary rulers who led their contingents of men to serve in the 
sian army in the expedition against Scythia. Miltiades and 
thj. vassal Greeks of Asia Minor were left by the Persian king 
in charge of the bridge across the Danube, when the invading 
army crossed that river, and plunged into the wilds of the coun- 
try that now is Russia, in vain pursuit of the ancestors of the 
ra lern Cossacks. On learning the reverses that Darius met 
with in the Scythian wilderness, Miltiades proposed to his com- 
panions that they should break the bridge down, and leave the 
i '.ersian king and his army to perish by famine and the Scythian 
arrows. The rulers of the Asiatic Greek cities whom Miltiades 
addressed shrank from this bold and ruthless stroke against 
Persian power, and Darius returned in safety. But it was 
wn what advice Miltiades had given ; and the vengeance of 
Darius was thenceforth specially directed against the man who 

* Herodotus, lib. vi., c. 103. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 7 

Lad counselled such a deadly blow against his empire and his 
person. The occupation of the Persian arms in other quarters 
left Miltiades for some years after this in possession of the 
Chersonese ; but it was precarious and interrupted. He, how- 
ever, availed himself of the opportunity which his position gave 
him of conciliating the good-will of his fellow-countrymen at 
Athens by conquering and placing under Athenian authority 
the islands of Lemnos and Imbros, to which Athens had ancient 
claims, but which she had never previously been able to bring 
into complete subjection. At length, in 494 B.C., the complete 
suppression of the Ionian revolt by the Persians left their armies 
and fleets at liberty to act against the enemies of the Great King 
to the west of the Hellespont. A strong squadron of Phoenician 
galleys was sent against the Chersonese. Miltiades knew that 
resistance was hopeless ; and while the Phoenicians were at 
Tenedos, he loaded five galleys with all the treasure that he 
could collect, and sailed away for Athens. The Phoenicians fell 
in with him, and chased him hard along the north of the ^Egean. 
One of his galleys, on board of which was his eldest son, Meti- 
ochus, was actually captured ; but Miltiades, with the other four, 
succeeded in reaching the friendly coast of Imbros in safety. 
Thence he afterwards proceeded to Athens, and resumed his 
station as a free citizen of the Athenian commonwealth. 

The Athenians at this time had recently expelled Hippias, the 
son of Pisistratus, the last of their tyrants. They were in the 
full glow of their newly recovered liberty and equality ; and the 
constitutional changes of Cleisthenes had inflamed their repub- 
lican zeal to the utmost. Miltiades had enemies at Athens ; and 
these, availing themselves of the state of popular feeling, brought 
him to trial for his life for having been tyrant of the Chersonese. 
The charge did not necessarily import any acts of cruelty or 
wrong to individuals : it was founded on no specific law ; but it 
was based on the horror with which the Greeks of that age re- 
garded every man who made himself compulsory master of his 
fellow-men, and exercised irresponsible dominion over them. 
The fact of Miltiades having so ruled in the Chersonese was un- 
deniable ; but the question which the Athenians, assembled in 
judgment, must have tried was, whether Miltiades, by becoming 
tyrant of the Chersonese, deserved punishment as an Athenian 
citizen. The eminent service that he had done the state in con- 
quering Lemnos and Imbros for it, pleaded strongly in his favor. 
The people refused to convict him. He stood high in public 
opinion ; and when the coming invasion of the Persians was 



8 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

known, the people wisely elected him one of their generals for 
the year. 

Two other men of signal eminence in history, though their 
renown was achieved at a later period than that of Miltiades, 
were also among the ten Athenian generals at Marathon. One 
was Themistocles, the future founder of the Athenian navy and 
the destined victor of Salamis; the other was Aristides, who 
afterwards led the Athenian troops at Platasa, and whose integ- 
rity and just popularity acquired for his country, when the Per- 
sians had finally been repulsed, the advantageous pre-eminence 
of being acknowledged by half of the Greeks as their impartial 
leader and protector. It is not recorded what part either The- 
mistocles or Aristides took in the debate of the council of war 
at Marathon. But from the character of Themistocles, his bold- 
ness, and his intuitive genius for extemporizing the best meas- 
ures in every emergency* (a quality which the greatest of his- 
torians ascribes to him beyond all his contemporaries), we may 
well believe that the vote of Themistocles was for prompt and 
decisive action. On the vote of Aristides it may be more diffi- 
cult to speculate. His predilection for the Spartans may have 
made him wish to wait till they came up ; but, though circum- 
spect, he was neither timid as a soldier nor as a politician ; and 
the bold advice of Miltiades may probably have found in Aris- 
tides a willing, most assuredly it found in him a candid, hearer. 

Miltiades felt no hesitation as to the course which the Athe- 
nian army ought to pursue ; and earnestly did he press his opin- 
ion on his brother-generals. Practically acquainted with the 
organization of the Persian armies, Miltiades was convinced of 
the superiority of the Greek troops if properly handled : he saw 
with the military eye of a great general the advantage which the 
position of the forces gave him for a sudden attack, and as a 
profound politician he felt the perils of remaining inactive, and 
of giving treachery time to ruin the Athenian cause. 

One officer in the council of war had not yet voted. This was 
Callimachus, the War-Ruler. The votes of the generals were 
five and five, so that the voice of Callimachus would be decisive. 

On that vote, in all human probability, the destiny of all the 
nations of the world depended. Miltiades turned to him, and in 
simple soldierly eloquence, the substance of which we may read 

* See the character of Themistocles in the 138th section of the first book 
of Thucydides, especially the last sentence. Kai to 'ivfiirav eiVeiv, Qvaeutg 
(ilv Swapst fAeXkrriQ dk ^pa\vrr\Ti KparurroQ Srj ovrog avroax^ia&iv ra deovra 
iyiviTO, 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 9 

faithfully reported in Herodotus, who had conversed with the 
veterans of Marathon, the great Athenian thus adjured his coun- 
tryman to vote for giving battle : 

" It now rests with you, Callimachus, either to enslave Athens, 
or, by assuring her freedom, to win yourself an immortality of 
fame, such as not even Harmodius and Aristogeiton have ac- 
quired. For never, since the Athenians were a people, were 
they in such danger as they are in at this moment. If they 
bow the knee to these Medes, they are to be given up to Hip- 
pias, and you know what they then will have to suffer. But if 
Athens comes victorious out of this contest, she has it in her to 
become the first city of Greece. Your vote is to decide whether 
we are to join battle or not. If we do not bring on a battle 
presently, some factious intrigue will disunite the Athenians, 
and the city will be betrayed to the Medes. But if we fight 
before there is anything rotten in the state of Athens, I believe 
that, provided the gods will give fair play and no favor, we are 
able to get the best of it in the engagement." * 

The vote of the brave War-Ruler was gained ; the council de- 
termined to give battle ; and such was the ascendency and mili- 
tary eminence of Miltiades that his brother-generals, one and 
all, gave up their days of command to him, and cheerfully acted 
under his orders. Fearful, however, of creating any jealousy, 
and of so failing to obtain the co-operation of all parts of his 
small army, Miltiades waited till the day when the chief com- 
mand would have come round to him in regular rotation before 
he led the troops against the enemy. 

The inaction of the Asiatic commanders during this interval 
appears strange at first sight ; but Hippias was with them, and 
they and he were aware of their chance of a bloodless conquest 
through the machinations of his partisans among the Athenians. 

* Herodotus, lib. vi., sec. 109. The 116th section is to my mind clear proof 
that Herodotus had personally conversed with Epizelus, one of the veterans 
of Marathon. The substance of the speech of Miltiades would naturally be- 
come known by the report of some of his colleagues. The speeches which 
ancient historians place in the mouth of kings and generals are generally in- 
ventions of their own ; but part of the speech of Miltiades bears internal evi- 
dence of authenticity. Such is the case with the remarkable expression, j)v 
St Zvixfiakwfitv wpiv ti icai oaQpbv 'ABqva'wtv utTtltrkpoioi ivyevkaOat, Qtuv rd 
laa vefiovTwv, oloi rk tifitv Tctpiyiv'ioQai ry av[x(3o\y. This daring and almost 
irreverent assertion would never have been coined by Herodotus, but it is 
precisely consonant with what we know of the character of Miltiades ; and it 
is an expression which, if used by him, would be sure to be remembered and 
repeated by his hearers. 



10 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

The nature of the ground also explains, in many points, the tac- 
tics of the opposite generals before the battle, as well as the op- 
erations of the troops during the engagement. 

The plain of Marathon, which is about twenty-two miles dis- 
tant from Athens, lies along the bay of the same name on the 
northeastern coast of Attica. The plain is nearly in the form 
of a crescent, and about six miles in length. It is about two 
miles broad in the centre, where the space between the moun- 
tains and the sea is greatest, but it narrows towards either ex- 
tremity, the mountains coming close down to the water at the 
horns of the bay. There is a valley trending inwards from the 
middle of the plain, and a ravine comes down to it to the south- 
ward. Elsewhere it is closely girt round on the land side by 
rugged limestone mountains, which are thickly studded with 
pines, olive-trees, and cedars, and overgrown with the myrtle, 
arbutus, and the other low odoriferous shrubs that everywhere 
perfume the Attic air. The level of the ground is now varied 
by the mound raised over those who fell in the battle, but it was 
an unbroken plain when the Persians encamped on it. There 
are marshes at each end, which are dry in spring and summer, 
and then offer no obstruction to the horseman, but are common- 
ly flooded with rain, and so rendered impracticable for cavalry, 
in the autumn, the time of year at which the action took place. # 

The Greeks, lying encamped on the mountains, could watch 
every movement of the Persians on the plain below, while they 
were enabled completely to mask their own. Miltiades also had, 
from his position, the power of giving battle whenever he pleased, 
or of delaying it at his discretion, unless Datis were to attempt 
the perilous operation of storming the heights. 

If we turn to the map of the old world, to test the compara- 
tive territorial resources of the two states whose armies were 
now about to come into conflict, the immense preponderance of 
the material power of the Persian king over that of the Athe- 
nian republic is more striking than any similar contrast which 
history can supply. It has been truly remarked, that, in esti- 
mating mere areas, Attica, containing on its whole surface only 
seven hundred square miles, shrinks into insignificance if com- 
pared with many a baronial fief of the Middle Ages, or many a 
colonial allotment of modern times. Its antagonist, the Persian 
empire, comprised the whole of modern Asiatic and much of 
modern European Turkey, the modern kingdom of Persia, and 

* See Plan, at p. 21. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 11 

the countries of modern Georgia, Armenia, Balkh, the Punjab, 
Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Egypt, and Tripoli. 

Nor could a European, in the beginning of the fifth century 
before our era, look upon this huge accumulation of power be- 
neath the sceptre of a single Asiatic ruler with the indifference 
with which we now observe on the map the extensive dominions 
of modern Oriental sovereigns. For, as has been already re- 
marked, before Marathon was fought, the prestige of success and 
of supposed superiority of race was on the side of the Asiatic 
against the European. Asia was the original seat of human 
societies ; and long before any trace can be found of the inhab- 
itants of the rest of the world having emerged from the rudest 
barbarism, we can perceive that mighty and brilliant empires 
flourished in the Asiatic continent. They appear before us 
through the twilight of primeval history, dim and indistinct, but 
massive and majestic, like mountains in the early dawn. 

Instead, however, of the infinite variety and restless change 
which have characterized the institutions and fortunes of Euro- 
pean states ever since the commencement of the civilization of 
our continent, a monotonous uniformity pervades the histories 
of nearly all Oriental empires, from the most ancient down to 
the most recent times. They are characterized by the rapidity 
of their early conquests ; by the immense extent of the domin- 
ions comprised in them ; by the establishment of a satrap or 
pacha system of governing the provinces ; by an invariable and 
speedy degeneracy in the princes of the royal house, the effemi- 
nate nurslings of the seraglio succeeding to the warrior-sovereigns 
reared in the camp ; and by the internal anarchy and insurrec- 
tions which indicate and accelerate the decline and fall of these 
unwieldy and ill-organized fabrics of power. It is also a strik- 
ing fact that the governments of all the great Asiatic empires 
have in all ages been absolute despotisms. And Heeren is right 
in connecting this with another great fact, which is important 
from its influence both on the political and the social life of 
Asiatics. "Among all the considerable nations of Inner Asia, 
the paternal government of every household was corrupted by 
polygamy ; where that custom exists, a good political constitu- 
tion is impossible. Fathers being converted into domestic des- 
pots, are ready to pay the same abject obedience to their sover- 
eign which they exact from their family and dependants in their 
domestic economy." We should bear in mind also the insepa- 
rable connection between the state religion and all legislation, 
which has always prevailed in the East, and the constant ex- 



12 BATTLE OF MARATHON 

istence of a powerful sacerdotal body, exercising some cheek, 
though precarious and irregular, over the throne itself, grasping 
at all civil administration, claiming the supreme control of edu- 
cation, stereotyping the lines in which literature and science 
must move, and limiting the extent to which it shall be lawful 
for the human mind to prosecute its inquiries. 

With these general characteristics rightly felt and understood, 
it becomes a comparatively easy task to investigate and appre- 
ciate the origin, progress, and principles of Oriental empires in 
general, as well as of the Persian monarchy in particular. And 
we are thus better enabled to appreciate the repulse which Greece 
gave to the arms of the East, and to judge of the probable con- 
sequences to human civilization if the Persians had succeeded 
in bringing Europe under their yoke, as they had already sub- 
jugated the fairest portions of the rest of the then known world. 

The Greeks, from their geographical position, formed the nat- 
ural vanguard of European liberty against Persian ambition ; and 
they pre-eminently displayed the salient points of distinctive na- 
tional character, which have rendered European civilization so 
far superior to Asiatic. The nations that dwelt in ancient times 
around and near the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea 
were the first in our continent to receive from the East the rudi- 
ments of art and literature, and the germs of social and political 
organization. Of these nations, the Greeks, through their vicin- 
ity to Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Egypt, were among the very 
foremost in acquiring the principles and habits of civilized life ; 
and they also at once imparted a new and wholly original stamp 
on all which they received. Thus, in their religion they received 
from foreign settlers the names of all their deities and many of 
their rites, but they discarded the loathsome monstrosities of the 
Nile, the Orontes, and the Ganges : they nationalized their creed ; 
and their own poets created their beautiful mythology. No sac- 
erdotal caste ever existed in Greece. So, in their governments 
they lived long under hereditary kings, but never endured the 
permanent establishment of absolute monarchy. Their early 
kings were constitutional rulers, governing with defined preroga- 
tives.* And long before the Persian invasion the kingly form 
of government had given way in almost all the Greek states to 
republican institutions, presenting infinite varieties of the balanc- 
ing or the alternate predominance of the oligarchical and demo- 
crat] cal principles. !"» literature and science the Greek intellect 

* 'Eni farolg ytpam irarpiKai (3curi\t~iai.— Thucyd., lib. I., sec. 13. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 13 

followed no beaten track, and acknowledged no limitary rules. 
The Greeks thought their subjects boldly out ; and the novelty 
of a speculation invested it in their minds with interest, and not 
with criminality. Versatile, restless, enterprising, and self-con- 
fident, the Greeks presented the most striking contrast to the 
habitual quietude and submissiveness of the Orientals. And, of 
all the Greeks, the Athenians exhibited these national character- 
istics in the strongest degree. This spirit of activity and dar- 
ing, joined to a generous sympathy for the fate of their fellow- 
Greeks in Asia, had led them to join in the last Ionian war ; and 
now, mingling with their abhorrence of the usurping family of 
their own citizens, which for a period had forcibly seized on and 
exercised despotic power at Athens, it nerved them to defy the 
wrath of King Darius, and to refuse to receive back at his bid- 
ding the tyrant whom they had some years before driven from 
their land. 

The enterprise and genius of an Englishman have lately con- 
firmed by fresh evidence, and invested with fresh interest, the 
might of the Persian monarch, who sent his troops to combat at 
Marathon. Inscriptions in a character termed the Arrow-head- 
ed, or Cuneiform, had long been known to exist on the marble 
monuments at Persepolis, near the site of the ancient Susa, and 
on the faces of rocks in other places formerly ruled over by the 
early Persian kings. But for thousands of years they had been 
mere unintelligible enigmas to the curious but baffled beholder ; 
and they were often referred to as instances of the folly of hu- 
man pride, which could indeed write its own praise in the solid 
rock, but only for the rock to outlive the language as well as 
the memory of the vain-glorious inscribers. The elder Niebuhr, 
Grotefend, and Lassen had made some guesses at the meaning 
of the Cuneiform letters; but Major Rawlinson, of the East 
India Company's service, after years of labor, has at last accom- 
plished the glorious achievement of fully revealing the alphabet 
and the grammar of this long unknown tongue. He has, in 
particular, fully deciphered and expounded the inscriptions on 
the sacred rock of Behistun, on the western frontiers of Media. 
These records of the Achsemenidse have at length found their 
interpreter; and Darius himself speaks to us from the conse- 
crated mountain, and tells us the names of the nations that 
obeyed him, the revolts that he suppressed, his victories, his 
piety, and his glory.* 

* See the tenth volume of the " Journal of the Royal Asiatie Society," 



54 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

Kings who thus seek the admiration of posterity are little 
likely to dim the record of their successes by the mention of 
their occasional defeats ; and it throws no suspicion on the nar- 
rative of the Greek historians that we find these inscriptions 
respecting the overthrow of Datis and Artaphernes, as well as 
respecting the reverses which Darius sustained in person during 
his Scythian campaigns. But these indisputable monuments of 
Persian fame confirm, and even increase, the opinion with which 
Herodotus inspires us, of the vast power which Cyrus founded 
and Cambyses increased ; which Darius augmented by Indian 
and Arabian conquests, and seemed likely, when he directed his 
arms against Europe, to make the predominant monarchy of the 
world. 

With the exception of the Chinese empire, in which, through- 
out all ages down to the last few years, one third of the human 
race has dwelt almost unconnected with the other portions, all 
the great kingdoms which we know to have existed in Ancient 
Asia were, in Darius's time, blended with the Persian. The 
northern Indians, the Assyrians, the Syrians, the Babylonians, 
the Chaldees, the Phoenicians, the nations of Palestine, the Ar- 
menians, the Bactrians, the Lydians, the Phrygians, the Par- 
tisans, and the Medes — all obeyed the sceptre of the Great 
King ; the Medes standing next to the native Persians in honor, 
and the empire being frequently spoken of as that of the Medes, 
or that of the Medes and Persians. Egypt and Cyrene were 
Persian provinces; the Greek colonists in Asia Minor and the 
islands of the ^Egean were Darius's subjects ; and their gallant 
but unsuccessful attempts to throw off the Persian yoke had 
only served to rivet it more strongly, and to increase the general 
belief that the Greeks could not stand before the Persians in a 
field of battle. Darius's Scythian war, though unsuccessful in 
its immediate object, had brought about the subjugation of 
Thrace and the submission of Macedonia. From the Indus to 
the Peneus, all was his. 

We may imagine the wrath with which the lord of so many 
nations must have heard, nine years before the battle of Mara- 
thon, that a strange nation towards the setting sun, called the 
Athenians, had dared to help his rebels in Ionia against him, 
and that they had plundered and burned the capital of one of 
his provinces. Before the burning of Sardis, Darius seems 
never to have heard of the existence of Athens ; but his satraps 
in Asia Minor had for some time seen Athenian refugees at 
their provincial courts imploring assistance against their fellow- 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 15 

eountrymen. When Hippias was driven away from Athens, and 
the tyrannic dynasty of the Pisistratidae finally overthrown in 
510 b. c, the banished tyrant and his adherents, after vainly 
seeking to be restored by Spartan intervention, had betaken 
themselves to Sardis, the capital city of the satrapy of Arta- 
phernes. There Hippias (in the expressive words of Herodo- 
tus)* began every kind of agitation, slandering the Athenians 
before Artaphernes, and doing all he could to induce the satrap 
to place Athens in subjection to him, as the tributary vassal of 
King Darius. When the Athenians heard his practices, they 
sent envoys to Sardis to remonstrate with the Persians against 
taking up the quarrel of the Athenian refugees. But Arta- 
phernes gave them in reply a menacing command to receive 
Hippias back again if they looked for safety. The Athenians 
were resolved not to purchase safety at such a price ; and after 
rejecting the satrap's terms, they considered that they and the 
Persians were declared enemies. At this very crisis the Ionian 
Greeks implored the assistance of their European brethren, to 
enable them to recover their independence from Persia. Ath- 
ens, and the city of Eretria in Euboea, alone consented. Twenty 
Athenian galleys, and five Eretrian, crossed the ^Egean Sea ; and 
by a bold and sudden march upon Sardis the Athenians and 
their allies succeeded in capturing the capital city of the haughty 
satrap, who had recently manaced them with servitude or de- 
struction. The Persian forces were soon rallied, and the Greeks 
were compelled to retire. They were pursued, and defeated on 
their return to the coast, and Athens took no further part in the 
Ionian war. But the insult that she had put upon the Persian 
power was speedily made known throughout that empire, and 
was never to be forgiven or forgotten. In the emphatic sim- 
plicity of the narrative of Herodotus, the wrath of the Great 
King is thus described ; " Now when it was told to King 
Darius that Sardis had been taken and burned by the Athenians 
and Ionians, he took small heed of the Ionians, well knowing 
who they were, and that their revolt would soon be put down ; 
but he asked who, and what manner of men, the Athenians 
were. And when he had been told, he called for his bow ; and, 
having taken it, and placed an arrow on the string, he let the 
arrow fly towards heaven; and as he shot it into the air, he 
said, ' O Supreme God ! grant me that I may avenge myself on 
the Athenians.' And when he had said this, he appointed one 

* Herod,, lib. v., c. 96. 



16 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

of his servants to say to him every day as he sat at meat, * Sire, 
remember the Athenians.' " 

Some years were occupied in the complete reduction of Ionia. 
But when this was effected, Darius ordered his victorious forces 
to proceed to punish Athens and Eretria, and to conquer Euro- 
pean Greece. The first armament sent for this purpose was 
shattered by shipwreck, and nearly destroyed off Mount Athos. 
But the purpose of King Darius was not easily shaken. A 
larger army was ordered to be collected in Cilicia ; and requisi- 
tions were sent to all the maritime cities of the Persian empire 
for ships of war, and for transports of sufficient size for carry- 
ing cavalry as well as infantry across the ^Egean. While these 
preparations were being made, Darius sent heralds round to the 
Grecian cities demanding their submission to Persia. It was 
proclaimed in the market-place of each little Hellenic state (some 
with territories not larger than the Isle of Wight), that King 
Darius, the lord of all men, from the rising to the setting sun,* 
required earth and water to be delivered to his heralds, as a 
symbolical acknowledgment that he was head and master of the 
country. Terror-stricken at the power of Persia and at the se- 
vere punishment that had recently been inflicted on the refrac- 
tory Ionians, many of the Continental Greeks and nearly all the 
islanders submitted, and gave the required tokens of vassalage. 
At Sparta and Athens an indignant refusal was returned : a re- 
fusal which was disgraced by outrage and violence against the 
persons of the Asiatic heralds. 

Fresh fuel was thus added to the anger of Darius against 
Athens, and the Persian preparations went on with renewed 
vigor. In the summer of 490 b.c, the army destined for the 
invasion was assembled in the Aleian plain of Cilicia, near the 
sea. A fleet of six hundred galleys and numerous transports 
was collected on the coast for the embarkation of troops, 
horse as well as foot. A Median general named Datis, and Ar- 
taphernes, the son of the satrap of Sardis, and who was also 
nephew of Darius, were placed in titular joint command of the 
expedition. That the real supreme authority was given to Datis 

* ^Eschines in Ctes., p. 522, ed. Reiske. Mitford, vol. i., p. 485. ^Eschines 
is speaking of Xerxes, but Mitford is probably right in considering it as the 
style of the Persian kings in their proclamations. In one of the inscriptions 
at Persepolis, Darius terms himself " Darius the great king, king of kings, 
the king of the many peopled countries, the supporter also of this great 
world." In another, he styles himself "the king of all inhabited countries." 
(See "Asiatic Journal," vol. x., pp. 28*7 and 292, and Major Rawlinson's 
Comments.) 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 17 

alone is probable, from the way in which the Greek writers 
speak of him. We know no details of the previous career of 
this officer ; but there is every reason to believe that his abilities 
and bravery had been proved by experience, or his Median birth 
would have prevented his being placed in high command by 
Darius. He appears to have been the first Mede who was thus 
trusted by the Persian kings after the overthrow of the conspir- 
acy of the Median Magi against the Persians immediately before 
Darius obtained the throne. Datis received instructions to com- 
plete the subjugation of Greece, and especial orders were given 
him with regard to Eretria and Athens. He was to take these 
two cities; and he was to lead the inhabitants away captive, and 
bring them as slaves into the presence of the Great King. 

Datis embarked his forces in the fleet that awaited them ; and 
coasting along the shores of Asia Minor till he was off Samos, 
he thence sailed due westward through the iEgean Sea for 
Greece, taking the islands in his way. The Naxians had, ten 
years before, successfully stood a siege against a Persian arma- 
ment, but they now were too terrified to offer any resistance, and 
fled to the mountain-tops, while the enemy burned their town 
and laid waste their lands. Thence Datis, compelling the Greek 
islanders to join him with their ships and men, sailed onward to 
the coast of Euboea. The little town of Carystus essayed resist- 
ance, but was quickly overpowered. He next attacked Eretria. 
The Athenians sent four thousand men to its aid. But treach- 
ery was at work among the Eretrians ; and the Athenian force 
received timely warning from one of the leading men of the city 
to retire to aid in saving their own country, instead of remain- 
ing to share in the inevitable destruction of Eretria. Left to 
themselves, the Eretrians repulsed the assault of the Persians 
against their walls for six days ; on the seventh day they were 
betrayed by two of their chiefs, and the Persians occupied the 
city. The temples were burned in revenge for the burning of 
Sardis, and the inhabitants were bound and placed as prisoners 
in the neighboring islet of ^Egylia, to wait there till Datis should 
bring the Athenians to join them in captivity, when both popu- 
lations were to be led into Upper Asia, there to learn their doom 
from the lips of King Darius himself. 

Flushed with success, and with half his mission thus accom- 
plished, Datis reimbarked his troops, and, crossing the little 
channel that separates Eubcea from the mainland, he encamped 
his troops on the Attic coast at Marathon, drawing up his gal- 
leys on the shelving beach, as was the custom with the navies 



18 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

of antiquity. The conquered islands behind him served as 
places of deposit for his provisions and military stores. His 
position at Marathon seemed to him in every respect advanta- 
geous ; and the level nature of the ground on which he camped 
was favorable for the employment of his cavalry, if the Athe- 
nians should venture to engage him. Hippias, who accompanied 
him, and acted as the guide of the invaders, had pointed out 
Marathon as the best place for a landing, for this very reason. 
Probably Hippias was also influenced by the recollection that 
forty-seven years previously he, with his father Pisistratus, had 
crossed with an army from Eretria to Marathon, and had won an 
easy victory over their Athenian enemies on that very plain, 
which had restored them to tyrannic power. The omen seemed 
cheering. The place was the same ; but Hippias soon learned 
to his cost how great a change had come over the spirit of the 
Athenians. 

But though " the fierce democracy " of Athens was zealous 
and true against foreign invader and domestic tyrant, a faction 
existed in Athens, as at Eretria, of men willing to purchase a 
party triumph over their fellow-citizens at the price of their 
country's ruin. Communications were opened between these 
men and the Persian camp, which would have led to a catas- 
trophe like that of Eretria, if Miltiades had not resolved, and 
had not persuaded his colleagues to resolve, on fighting at all 
hazards. 

When Miltiades arrayed his men for action, he staked on the 
arbitrement of one battle not only the fate of Athens, but that 
of all Greece ; for if Athens had fallen, no other Greek state, 
except Lacedaemon, would have had the courage to resist ; and 
the Lacedaemonians, though they would probably have died in 
their ranks to the last man, never could have successfully re- 
sisted the victorious Persians and the numerous Greek troops 
which would have soon marched under the Persian satraps had 
they prevailed over Athens. 

Nor was there any power to the westward of Greece that could 
have offered an effectual opposition to Persia had she once con- 
quered Greece and made that country a basis for future military 
operations. Rome was at this time in her season of utmost 
weakness. Her dynasty of powerful Etruscan kings had been 
driven out, and her infant commonwealth was reeling under the 
attacks of the Etruscans and Volscians from without, and the 
fierce dissensions between the patricians and plebeians within. 
Etruria, with her Lucumos and serfs, was no match for Persia. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 19 

Samnium had not grown into the might which she afterwards 
put forth ; nor could the Greek colonies in South Italy and Sicily- 
hope to survive when their parent states had perished. Carthage 
had escaped the Persian yoke in the time of Cambyses, through 
the reluctance of the Phoenician mariners to serve against their 
kinsmen. But such forbearance could not long have been relied 
on, and the future rival of Rome would have become as submis- 
sive a minister of the Persian power as were the Phoenician cities 
themselves. If we turn to Spain, or if we pass the great moun- 
tain chain which, prolonged through the Pyrenees, the Cevennes, 
the Alps, and the Balkan, divides Northern from Southern Eu- 
rope, we shall find nothing at that period but mere savage Finns, 
Celts, Slaves, and Teutons. Had Persia beaten Athens at Mara- 
thon, she could have found no obstacle to prevent Darius, the 
chosen servant of Ormuzd, from advancing his sway over all the 
known Western races of mankind. The infant energies of Eu- 
rope would have been trodden out beneath universal conquest ; 
and the history of the world, like the history of Asia, would 
have become a mere record of the rise and fall of despotic dyn- 
asties, of the incursions of barbarous hordes, and of the mental 
and political prostration of millions beneath the diadem, the 
tiara, and the sword. 

Great as the preponderance of the Persian over the Athenian 
power at that crisis seems to have been, it would be unjust to 
impute wild rashness to the policy of Miltiades, and those who 
voted with him in the Athenian council of war, or to look on the 
after-current of events as the mere result of successful indiscre- 
tion. As before has been remarked, Miltiades, while prince of 
the Chersonese, had seen service in the Persian armies ; and he 
knew by personal observation how many elements of weakness 
lurked beneath their imposing aspect of strength. He knew 
that the bulk of their troops no longer consisted of the hardy 
shepherds and mountaineers from Persia Proper and Kurdistan, 
who won Cyrus's battles: but that unwilling contingents from 
conquered nations now largely filled up the Persian muster-rolls, 
fighting more from compulsion than from any zeal in the cause 
of their masters. He had also the sagacity and the spirit to ap- 
preciate the superiority of the Greek armor and organization 
over the Asiatic, notwithstanding former reverses. Above all, 
he felt and worthily trusted the enthusiasm of the men under 
his command. 

The Athenians, whom he led, had proved by their new-born 
valor in recent wars against the neighboring states, that u Lib- 



20 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

crty and Equality of civic rights are brave, spirit-stirring things ; 
and they who, while under the yoke of a despot, had been no 
better men of war than any of their neighbors, as soon as they 
were free, became the foremost men of all ; for each felt that in 
fighting for a free commonwealth he fought for himself, and, 
whatever he took in hand, he was zealous to do the work thor- 
oughly." So the nearly contemporaneous historian describes 
the change of spirit that was seen in the Athenians after their 
tyrants were expelled ;* and Miltiades knew that in leading them 
against the invading army, where they had Hippias, the foe they 
most hated, before them, he was bringing into battle no ordi- 
nary men, and could calculate on no ordinary heroism. As for 
traitors, he was sure that, whatever treachery might lurk among 
some of the higher-born and wealthier Athenians, the rank and 
file whom he commanded were ready to do their utmost in his 
and their own cause. With regard to future attacks from Asia, 
he might reasonably hope that one victory would inspirit all 
Greece to combine against the common foe ; and that the latent 
seeds of revolt and disunion in the Persian empire would soon 
burst forth and paralyze its energies, so as to leave Greek inde- 
pendence secure. 

With these hopes and risks, Miltiades, on the afternoon of a 
September day, 490 B.C., gave the word for the Athenian army 
to prepare for battle. There were many local associations 
connected with those mountain heights which were calculated 
powerfully to excite the spirits of the men, and of which the 
commanders well knew how to avail themselves in their exhor- 
tations to their troops before the encounter. Marathon itself 
was a region sacred to Hercules. Close to them was the foun- 
tain of Macaria, who had in days of yore devoted herself to 

* 'AQrjvaioi fxiv vvv rjvZrjvTO ' SrfXoT dt ov kclt 'tv fiovov aXXd TravTa\r\ »/ 
'larjyopir] ojg 'ion xprjfia. oirovSciiov, el icai 'AOrjvaloi rvpavvtvofitvoi fxkv ov- 
Sa[xov tCjv o<pkag 7repioiKsovTu)v taav ra. iroXkfiia afizivovg cnraXXaxOevTeg dt 
Tvpavvwv fiaicpqi 7rpu>TOi tyevovro ' SrjXol iov ravra on Kar€%6/U£voi fikv k9e- 
Xoicaicaov, ojq dsoTTOTt] tpyct%6fifvot ' iXEvOepwOtvTwv de. avrbg sKaarog faivr<£ 
TrpodvfxitTO KaTEpya&oQai. — Herod., lib. v., c. 87. 

Mr. Grote's comment on this is one of the most eloquent and philosophical 
passages in his admirable Fourth Volume. 

The expression 'larjyophj xprma oTrovdcuov is like some lines in old Bar- 
bour's poem of " The Bruce :" 

" Ah, Freedome is a noble thing : 
Fredome makes man to haiff lyking. 
Fredome all solace to men gives : 
He lives at ease, that freely lives." 



BATTLE OF MARATHON: 



21 



death for the liberty of her people. The very plain on which 
they were to fight was the scene of the exploits of their national 
hero, Theseus ; and there, too, as old legends told, the Athe- 
nians and the Heraclidse had routed the invader, Eurystheus. 
These traditions were not mere cloudy myths or idle fictions, 
but matters of implicit, earnest faith to the men of that day ; and 
many a fervent prayer arose from the Athenian ranks to the 
heroic spirits who, while on earth, had striven and suffered on 
that very spot, and who were believed to be now heavenly pow- 
ers, looking down with interest on their still beloved country, 
and capable of interposing with superhuman aid in its behalf. 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 



According to old national custom, the warriors of each tribe 
were arrayed together ; neighbor thus fighting by the side of 
neighbor, friend by friend, and the spirit of emulation and the-«fr 
consciousness of responsibility excited to the very utmost. The 
War-Ruler, Callimachus, had the leading of the right wing ; the 
Platseans formed the extreme left ; and Themistocles and Aris- , 
tides commanded the centre. The line consisted of the heavy- 
armed spearmen only. For the Greeks (until the time of Iphic- 



22 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

rates) took little or no account of light-armed soldiers in a 
pitched battle, using them only in skirmishes or for the pursuit 
of a defeated enemy. The panoply of the regular infantry con- 
sisted of a long spear, of a shield, helmet, breast-plate, greaves, 
and short sword. Thus equipped, they usually advanced slowly 
and steadily into action in a uniform phalanx of about eight 
spears deep. But the military genius of Miltiades led him to 
deviate on this occasion from the commonplace tactics of his 
countrymen. It was essential for him to extend his line so as 
to cover all the practicable ground, and to secure himself from 
being outflanked and charged in the rear by the Persian horse. 
This extension involved the weakening of his line. Instead of 
a uniform reduction of its strength, he determined on detach- 
ing principally from his centre, which, from the nature of the 
ground, would have the best opportunities for rallying if broken ; 
and on strengthening his wings, so as to insure advantage at 
those points ; and he trusted to his own skill, and to his soldier's 
discipline, for the improvement of that advantage into decisive 
victory.* 

In this order, and availing himself probably of the inequalities 
of the ground, so as to conceal his preparations from the enemy 
till the last possible moment, Miltiades drew up the eleven 
thousand infantry whose spears were to decide this crisis in the 
struggle between the European and the Asiatic worlds. The 
sacrifices by which the favor of Heaven was sought, and its will 
consulted, were announced to show propitious omens. The 
trumpet sounded for action, and, chanting the hymn of battle, 
the little army bore down upon the host of the foe. Then, too, 
along the mountain slopes of Marathon must have resounded the 
mutual exhortation which JEschylus, who fought in both battles, 
tells us was afterwards heard over the waves of Salamis — " On, 
sons of the Greeks ! Strike for the freedom of your country ! 
strike for the freedom of your children and of your wives — for 
the shrines of your fathers' gods, and for the sepulchres of your 
sires. All — all are now staked upon the strife !" 

* It is remarkable that there is no other instance of a Greek general devi- 
ating from the ordinary mode of bringing a phalanx of spearmen into action, 
until the battles of Leuctra and Mantineia, more than a century after Mara- 
thon, when Epaminondas introduced the tactics (which Alexander the Great 
in ancient times, and Frederick the Great in modern times, made so famous) 
of concentrating an overpowering force on some decisive point of the enemy's 
line, while he kept back, or, in military phrase, refused the weaker part of 
his own. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON, 23 



'Q 7ral$f£ 'EMt/vwv, 'ire 
'EXevQepovre 7rctTpid', tXtvOepovrt 8k 
UalSag, yvvaiKag, Qeu>v re iraTpdjuiv eStj f 
Qijicag re Trpoyovvov. ~Nvv vTrep iravTwv dytttv 



* 



Instead of advancing at the usual slow pace of the phalanx, 
Miltiades brought his men on at a run. They were all trained 
in the exercises of the palaestra, so that there was no fear of their 
ending the charge in breathless exhaustion ; and it was of the 
deepest importance for him to traverse as rapidly as possible the 
space of about a mile of level ground that lay between the 
mountain foot and the Persian outposts, and so to get his troops 
into close action before the Asiatic cavalry could mount, form, 
and manoeuvre against him, or their archers keep him long un- 
der bow-shot, and before the enemy's generals could fairly de- 
ploy their masses. 

, " When the Persians," says Herodotus, " saw the Athenians 
running down on them, without horse or bowmen, and scanty in 
numbers, they thought them a set of madmen rushing upon cer- 
tain destruction." They began, however, to prepare to receive 
them, and the Eastern chiefs arrayed, as quickly as time and 
place allowed, the varied races who served in their motley ranks. 
Mountaineers from Hyrcania and Afghanistan, wild horsemen 
from the steppes of Khorassan, the black archers of Ethiopia, 
swordsmen from the banks of the Indus, the Oxus, the Euphra- 
tes, and the Nile, made ready against the enemies of the Great 
King. But no national cause inspired them, except the division 
of native Persians ; and in the large host there was no uniform- 
ity of language, creed, race, or military system. Still, among 
them there were many gallant men, under a veteran general ; 
they were familiarized with victory ; and in contemptuous con- 
fidence their infantry, which alone had time to form, awaited the 
Athenian charge. On came the Greeks, with one unwavering 
line of levelled spears, against which the light targets, the short 
lances and scimitars of the Orientals offered weak defence. 
The front rank of the Asiatics must have gone down to a man 
at the first shock. Still they recoiled not, but strove by indi- 
vidual gallantry, and by the weight of numbers, to make up for 
the disadvantages of weapons and tactics, and to bear back the 
shallow line of the Europeans. In the centre, where the native 
Persians and the Sacse fought, they succeeded in breaking 
through the weaker part of the Athenian phalanx ; and the tribes 
led by Aristides and Themistocles were, after a brave resistance, 

* Persse, 402. 



24 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

driven back over the plain, and chased by the Persians up the 
valley towards the inner country. There the nature of the 
ground gave the opportunity of rallying and renewing the strug- 
gle ; and, meanwhile, the Greek wings, where Miltiades had con- 
centrated his chief strength, had routed the Asiatics opposed to 
them ; and the Athenian and Plataean officers, instead of pursu- 
ing the fugitives, kept their troops well in hand, and wheeling 
round they formed the two wings together. Miltiades instantly 
led them against the Persian centre, which had hitherto been 
triumphant, but which now fell back, and prepared to encounter 
these new and unexpected assailants. Aristides and Themisto- 
cles renewed the fight with their reorganized troops, and the full 
force of the Greeks was brought into close action with the Per- 
sian and Sacian divisions of the enemy. Datis's veterans strove 
hard to keep their ground, and evening * was approaching be- 
fore the stern encounter was decided. 

But the Persians, with their slight wicker shields, destitute of 
body-armor, and never taught by training to keep the even front 
and act with the regular movement of the Greek infantry, fought 
at grievous disadvantage with their shorter and feebler weapons 
against the compact array of well-armed Athenian and Plataean 
spearmen, all perfectly drilled to perform each necessary evolu- 
tion in concert, and to preserve a uniform and unwavering line 
in battle. In personal courage and in bodily activity the Per- 
sians were not inferior to their adversaries. Their spirits were 
not yet cowed by the recollection of former defeats ; and they 
lavished their lives freely rather than forfeit the fame which 
they had won by so many victories. While their rear ranks 
poured an incessant shower of arrows \ over the heads of their 
comrades, the foremost Persians kept rushing forward, some- 
times singly, sometimes in desperate groups of twelve or 
ten, upon the projecting spears of the Greeks, striving to force 
a lane into the phalanx, and to bring their scimitars and dag- 
gers into play.J But the Greeks felt their superiority, and 

* 'AW' ofiojg d7rw<To/i6<T0a %vv Oeciig irpbg tOTTtpa. 

Aristoph., Vespce, 1085. 

f 'E/xaxo/j£<x0' avToiai, 9vubv b%,ivt]v 7r£7r(t>ic6reg, 
"Brag dvjjp Trap', avSp', hit bpyijg tijv yjt\vvr]v zgOiojv ' 
'Y7t6 5e ruJv ToS,evfia.TU)v ovk H)v Idstv rbv ovpavbv. 

Aristoph., Vespce, 1082. 

X See the description, in the 62d section of the ninth book of Herodotus, of 
the gallantry shown by the Persian infantry against the Lacedaemonians at 
Platsea. We have no similar detail of the fight at Marathon, but we know 
that it was long and obstinately contested (see the 113th section of the sixth 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 25 

though the fatigue of the long-continued action told heavily on 
their inferior numbers, the sight of the carnage that they dealt 
among their assailants nerved them to fight still more fiercely on. 
At last the previously unvanquished lords of Asia turned 
their backs and fled, and the Greeks followed, striking them 
down, to the water's edge,* where the invaders were now 
hastily launching their galleys, and seeking to embark and fly. 
Flushed with success, the Athenians dashed at the fleet. 
" Bring fire, bring fire," was their cry ; and they began to lay 
hold of the ships. But here the Asiatics resisted desperately, 
and the principal loss sustained by the Greeks was in the as- 
sault on the fleet. Here fell the brave War-Ruler Callimachus, 
the general Stesilaus, and other Athenians of note. Conspicu- 
ous among them was Cynsegeirus, the brother of the tragic poet 
^Eschylus. He had grasped the ornamental work on the stern 
of one of the galleys, and had his hand struck off by an axe.f 

book of Herodotus, and the lines from the "Vespse" already quoted), and 
the spirit of the Persians must have been even higher at Marathon than at 
Plataea. In both battles it was only the true Persians and the Sacae who 
showed this valor ; the other Asiatics fled like sheep. 

* " The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow ; 

The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear ; 
Mountains above, Earth's, Ocean's plain below, 
Death in the front, Destruction in the rear ! 
Such was the scene." — Byron's Childe Harold. 

f Mr. Grote well remarks that this battle of the ships must have emphati- 
cally recalled to ^Eschylus (and others of the Athenian combatants) the fif- 
teenth book of the Iliad : 

Avrig St Spifitla fidxv irapd vi)valv irvx^} ' 
<pair)g k dicfiijTag icai drtiptag dXXi)Xot(nv 
aVTiaO' iv 7To\eju<£> * iog tGovfievuig tfid%ovTO. 

"Ektojp St TrpvfivijQ vtbg i)\paro 7rovT07r6poio, 
icakrjg, wKvdXov, i) YlpitirtaiXaov tvutetv 
ig Tpoirjv, ovS' avrig diri)yayt rrarpiSa yalav. 
rovirtp Si) rrtpi vi]bg 'A%aioi rt TpuJtg rs 
Syovv dXXr)Xovg avroax^Sov' ovS' dpa roiye 
ro^uiv diicdg dfx.(pig fxtvov, ovSs r dicovriov, 
dXX' o'ly' tyyvOev iardfitvot, 'iva Qvfibv txovrtg, 
6£s<n St) ntXtKeaai icai dZivyoi fidxovro, 
icai £,i(t>£<jiv fityaXoKTi Kcd iyxtaiv dfupiyvoiatv. 
7roXXd St <j>dayava icaXd, fitXdvStra, KioTn')tvra, 
dXXa fiiv tic xtipwv x a f l dSig iriaovy dXXa S' air w/iwv 
dvSpCJv fiapvafitvujv ' pee S' a'ifiari yala fitXatva. 
"EicTwp St irpv)xvi)9tv tizti Xdj3tv, oi>xi fitOiei, 
dtyXaaroi' fitrd x i P (Tlv ^X 0)V > Tpaiciv St KtXtvtv ' 

O'iotrt irvp, lifta S' avroi doXXttg bpvvr dvrijv ! 
vuv i)fiiv irdvrwv Ztijg d%iov ijfiap tSioKtv, 
vijag tXtiv, at Stvpo Otwv dticijri fioXovaai, 
I'lliiv 7n)fiaTa TToXXd Qkaav, tcatcbrtiri ytpovruv. 



26 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

Seven galleys were captured ; but the Persians succeeded m 
saving the rest. They pushed off from the fatal shore ; but 
even here the skill of Datis did not desert him, and he sailed 
round to the western coast of Attica, in hopes to find the city 
unprotected, and to gain possession of it from some of the par- 
tisans of Hippias. Miltiades, however, saw and counteracted 
his manoeuvre. Leaving Aristides, and the troops of his tribe, 
to guard the spoil and the slain,* the Athenian commander led 
his conquering army by a rapid night-march back across the 
country to Athens. And when the Persian fleet had doubled 
the Cape of Sunium and sailed up to the Athenian harbor in the 
morning, Datis saw arrayed on the heights above the city the 
troops before whom his men had fled on the preceding evening. 
All hope of further conquest in Europe for the time was aban- 
doned, and the baffled armada returned to the Asiatic ©oasts. 

After the battle had been fought, but while the dead bodies 
were yet on the ground, the promised reinforcement from Sparta 
arrived. Two thousand Lacedaemonian spearmen, starting im- 
mediately after the full moon, had marched the hundred and 

"Then again there grew 
A bitter conflict at the fleet : you would have said none drew 
A weary breath, nor ever would, they laid so freshly on. 

* * * * Great Hector still directs 

His power against the first near ship. 'Twas that fair bark that brought 

Protesilaus to the wars ; and now, herself to nought, 

With many Greek and Trojan lives all spoil'd about her spoil ; 

One slew another desperately, and close the deadly toil 

Was pitch'd on both parts ; not a shaft, not far-off striking dart 

Was used through all ; one fight fell out, of one despiteful heart ; 

Sharp axes, twybills, two-hand swords, and spears with two heads borne 

Were then the weapons ; fair short swords, with sanguine hilts still worn, 

Had use in like sort ; of which last, ye might have numbers view'd 

Drop with dissolved arms from their hands, as many downright hew'd 

From off their shoulders as they fought, their bawdries cut in twain ; 

And thus the black blood flow'd on earth from soldiers hurt and slain. 

When Hector once had seized the ship, he clapt his fair broad hand 
Fast on the stern, and held it there, and there gave his command : 

Bring fire, and all together shout ; now Jove hath drawn the veil 
From such a day, as makes amends for all his storms of hail ; 
By whose blest light we take those ships, that in despite of heaven 
Took sea, and brought us worlds of woe." — Chapman's Translation. 

* " The painter of the nobler schools might find perhaps few subjects wor- 
thier of his art than Aristides watching at night amidst the torches of his 
men over the Plains of Marathon, in sight of the blue J^gaean, no longer 
crowded with the Barbarian masts, and near the white columns of the Tem- 
ple of Hercules, beside which the Athenians had pitched their camp."— 
Lytton Bulwer. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 27 

fifty miles between Athens and Sparta in the wonderfully short 
time of three days. Though too late to share in the glory of 
the action, they requested to be allowed to march to the battle- 
field to behold the Medes. They proceeded thither, gazed on 
the dead bodies of the invaders, and then, praising the Athe- 
nians and what they had done, they returned to Lacedaemon. 

The number of the Persian dead was six thousand four hun- 
dred ; of the Athenians, a hundred and ninety-two. The num- 
ber of Platseans who fell is not mentioned, but as they fought 
in the part of the army which was not broken, it cannot have 
been large. 

The apparent disproportion between the losses of the two 
armies is not surprising, when we remember the armor of the 
Greek spearmen, and the impossibility of heavy slaughter being 
inflicted by sword or lance on troops so armed, as long as they 
kept firm in their ranks.* 

The Athenian slain were buried on the field of battle. This 
was contrary to the usual custom, according to which the bones 
of all who fell fighting for their country in each year were de- 
posited in a public sepulchre in the suburb of Athens called the 
Cerameicus. But it was felt that a distinction ought to be made 
in the funeral honors paid to the men of Marathon, even as their 
merit had been distinguished over that of all other Athenians. 
A lofty mound was raised on the plain of Marathon, beneath 
which the remains of the men of Athens who fell in the battle 
were deposited. Ten columns were erected on the spot, one for 
each of the Athenian tribes ; and on the monumental column of 
each tribe were graven the names of those of its members whose 
glory it was to have fallen in the great battle of liberation. The 
antiquary Pausanias read those names there six hundred years 
after the time when they were first graven. \ The columns 
have long perished, but the mound still marks the spot where 
the noblest heroes of antiquity, the Mapadwvnfiaxoi repose. 

A separate tumulus was raised over the bodies of the slain 
Platseans, and another over the light-armed slaves who had taken 

* Mitford well refers to Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, as instances of 
similar disparity of loss between the conquerors and the conquered. 

f Pausanias states, with implicit belief, that the battle-field was haunted 
at night by supernatural beings, and that the noise of combatants and the 
snorting of horses were heard to resound on it. The superstition has sur- 
vived the change of creeds, and the shepherds of the neighborhood still be- 
lieve that spectral warriors contend on the plain at midnight, and they say 
that they have heard the shouts of the combatants and the neighing of the 
steeds. — See Grote and Thirlwall. 



28 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

part and had fallen in the battle.* There was also a distinct 
sepulchral monument to the general to whose genius the victory- 
was mainly due. Miltiades did not live long after his achieve- 
ment at Marathon, but he lived long enough to experience a lam- 
entable reverse of his popularity and good fortune. As soon as 
the Persians had quitted the western coasts of the iEgean, he 
proposed to an assembly of the Athenian people that they should 
fit out seventy galleys, with a proportionate force of soldiers and 
military stores, and place them at his disposal ; not telling them 
whither he meant to proceed, but promising them that, if they 
would equip the force he asked for, and give him discretionary 
powers, he would lead it to a land where there was gold in abun- 
dance to be won with ease. The Greeks at that time believed 
in the existence of Eastern realms teeming with gold as firmly 
as the Europeans of the sixteenth century believed in an Eldorado 
of the West. The Athenians probably thought that the recent 
victor of Marathon and former officer of Darius was about to 
guide them on a secret expedition against some wealthy and 
unprotected cities of treasure in the Persian dominions. The 
armament was voted and equipped, and sailed eastward from 
Attica, no one but Miltiades knowing its destination, until the 
Greek isle of Paros was reached, when his true object appeared. 
In former years, while connected with the Persians as prince of 
the Chersonese, Miltiades had been involved in a quarrel with 
one of the leading men among the Parians, who had injured his 
credit and caused some slights to be put upon him at the court 
of the Persian satrap, Hydarnes. The feud had ever since ran- 
kled in the heart of the Athenian chief, and he now attacked 
Paros for the sake of avenging himself on his ancient enemy. 
His pretext, as general of the Athenians, was, that the Parians 
had aided the armament of Datis with a war-galley. The Pari- 
ans pretended to treat about terms of surrender, but used the 
time which they thus gained in repairing the defective parts of 
the fortifications of their city ; and they then set the Athenians 
at defiance. So far, says Herodotus, the accounts of all the 
Greeks agree. But the Parians, in after-years, told also a wild 
legend, how a captive priestess of a Parian temple of the deities 
of the earth promised Miltiades to give him the means of captur- 
ing Paros : how, at her bidding, the Athenian general went alone 
at night and forced his way into a holy shrine near the city gate, 

* It is probable that the Greek light-armed irregulars were active in the 
attack on the Persian ships, and it was in this attack that the Greeks suf- 
fered their principal loss. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 29 

but with what purpose it was not known : how a supernatural 
awe came over him, and in his flight he fell and fractured his 
leg : how an oracle afterwards forbade the Parians to punish the 
sacrilegious and traitorous priestess, " because it was fated that 
Miltiades should come to an ill end, and she was only the instru- 
ment to lead him to evil." Such was the tale that Herodotus 
heard at Paros. Certain it was that Miltiades either dislocated 
or broke his leg during an unsuccessful siege of that city, and 
returned home in evil plight with his baffled and defeated forces. 
The indignation of the Athenians was proportionate to, the 
hope and excitement which his promises had raised. Xanthip- 
pus, the head of one of the first families in Athens, indicted 
him before the supreme popular tribunal for the capital offence 
of having deceived the people. His guilt was undeniable, and 
the Athenians passed their verdict accordingly. But the recol- 
lections of Lemnos and Marathon and the sight of the fallen 
general, who lay stretched on a couch before them, pleaded 
successfully in mitigation of punishment, and the sentence was 
commuted from death to a fine of fifty talents. This was paid 
by his son, the afterwards illustrious Cimon, Miltiades dying, 
soon after the trial, of the injury which he had received at Paros.* 

* The commonplace calumnies against the Athenians respecting Miltiades 
have been well answered by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton in his " Rise and Fall 
of Athens," and Bishop Thirlwall, in the second volume of his " History of 
Greece;" but they have received their most complete refutation from Mr. 
Grote, in the fourth volume of his History, pp. 490 et seq., and notes. I 
quite concur with him that, " looking to the practice of the Athenian dicas- 
tery in criminal cases, fifty talents was the minor penalty actually proposed 
by the defenders of Miltiades themselves as a substitute for the punishment 
of death. In those penal cases at Athens where the punishment was not 
fixed beforehand by the terms of the law, if the person accused was found 
guilty it was customary to submit to the jurors, subsequently and separately, 
the question as to the amount of punishment. First, the accuser named the 
penalty which he thought suitable ; next, the accused person was called upon 
to name an amount of penalty for himself, and the jurors were constrained to 
take their choice between these two; no third gradation of penalty being 
admissible for consideration. Of course, under such circumstances, it was 
the interest of the accused party to name, even in his own case, some real 
and serious penalty, something which the jurors might be likely to deem not 
wholly inadequate to his crime just proved ; for if he proposed some penalty 
only trifling, he drove them to prefer the heavier sentence recommended by 
his opponent." The stories of Miltiades having been cast into prison and 
dying there, and of his having been saved from death only by the interposition 
of the Prytanis of the day, are, I think, rightly rejected" by Mr. Grote as the 
fictions of after-ages. The silence of Herodotus respecting them is decisive. 
It is true that Plato, in the " Gorgias," says that the Athenians passed a vote 
to throw Miltiades into the Barathrum, and speaks of the interposition of the 



30 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

The melancholy end of Miltiades, after his elevation to such a 
height of power and glory, must often have been recalled to the 
mind of the ancient Greeks by the sight of one, in particular, of 
the memorials of the great battle which he won. This was the 
remarkable statue (minutely described by Pausanias) which the 
Athenians, in the time of Pericles, caused to be hewn out of a 
huge block of marble, which, it was believed, had been provided 
by Datis to form a trophy of the anticipated victory of the Per- 
sians. Phidias fashioned out of this a colossal image of the 
goddess Nemesis, the deity whose peculiar function was to visit 
the exuberant prosperity both of nations and individuals with 
sudden and awful reverses. This statue was placed in a temple 
of the goddess at Rhamnus, about eight miles from Marathon. 
Athens herself contained numerous memorials of her primary 
great victory. Panenus, the cousin of Phidias, represented it 
in fresco on the walls of the painted porch ; and, centuries after- 
wards, the figures of Miltiades and Callimachus at the head of 
the Athenians were conspicuous in the fresco. The tutelary 
deities were exhibited taking part in the fray. In the back- 
ground were seen the Phoenician galleys ; and nearer to the spec- 
tator the Athenians and Platseans (distinguished by their leath- 
ern helmets) were chasing routed Asiatics into the marshes and 
the sea. The battle was sculptured, also, on the Temple of Vic- 
tory in the Acropolis ; and even now there may be traced on 
the frieze the figures of the Persian combatants with their lunar 
shields, their bows and quivers, their curved scimitars, their 
loose trousers, and Phrygian tiaras.* 

These and other memorials of Marathon were the produce of 
the meridian age of Athenian intellectual splendor — of the age 
of Phidias and Pericles. For it was not merely by the genera- 
tion of men whom the battle liberated from Hippias and the 
Medes that the transcendent importance of their victory was 
gratefully recognized. Through the whole epoch of her pros- 
perity, through the long Olympiads of her decay, through cent- 

Prytanis in his favor; but it is to be remembered that Plato, with all his 
transcendent genius, was (as Niebuhr has termed him) a very indifferent 
patriot, who loved to blacken the character of his country's democratic insti- 
tutions ; and if the fact was that the Prytanis, at the trial of Miltiades, op- 
posed the vote of capital punishment, and spoke in favor of the milder sen- 
tence, Plato (in a passage written to show the misfortunes which befell Athe- 
nian statesmen) would readily exaggerate this fact into the story that appears 
in his text. 
* Wordsworth's "Greece," p. 115= 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 31 

uries after her fall, Athens looked back on the day of Marathon 
as the brightest of her national existence. 

By a natural blending of patriotic pride with grateful piety, 
the very spirits of the Athenians who fell at Marathon were dei- 
fied by their countrymen. The inhabitants of the districts of 
Marathon paid religious rites to them, and orators solemnly 
invoked them in their most impassioned adjurations before the 
assembled men of Athens. " Nothing was omitted that could 
keep alive the remembrance of a deed which had first taught 
the Athenian people to know its- own strength by measuring it 
with the power which had subdued the greater part of the known 
world. The consciousness thus awakened fixed its character, 
its station, and its destiny ; it was the spring of its later great 
actions and ambitious enterprises." * 

It was not, indeed, by one defeat, however signal, that the 
pride of Persia could be broken and her dreams of universal 
empire be dispelled. Ten years afterwards she renewed her 
attempts upon Europe on a grander scale of enterprise, and was 
repulsed by Greece with greater and reiterated loss. Larger 
forces and heavier slaughter than had been seen at Marathon 
signalized the conflicts of Greeks and Persians at Artemisium, 
Salamis, Plataea, and the Eurymedon. But, mighty and momen- 
tous as these battles were, they rank not with Marathon in impor- 
tance. They originated no new impulse. They turned back no 
current of fate. They were merely confirmatory of the already 
existing bias which Marathon had created. The day of Mara- 
thon is the critical epoch in the history of the two nations. It 
broke forever the spell of Persian invincibility which had par- 
alyzed men's minds. It generated among the Greeks the spirit 
which beat back Xerxes, and afterwards led on Xenophon, Ages- 
ilaus, and Alexander, in terrible retaliation, through their Asiatic 
campaigns. It secured for mankind the intellectual treasures of 
Athens, the growth of free institutions, the liberal enlightenment 
of the Western world, and the gradual ascendency for many 
ages of the great principles of European civilization. 

EXPLANATORY REMARKS ON SOME OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES 
OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

Nothing is said by Herodotus of the Persian cavalry taking 
any part in the battle, although he mentions that Hippias rec- 

* Tbirlwall, 



32 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

oinmended the Persians to land at Marathon, because the plain 
was favorable for cavalry evolutions. In the life of Miltiades, 
which is usually cited as the production of Cornelius Nepos, but 
which I believe to be of no authority whatever, it is said that 
Miltiades protected his flanks from the enemy's horse by an abat- 
tis of felled trees. While he was on the high ground he would 
not have required this defence ; and it is not likely that the Per- 
sians would have allowed him to erect it on the plain. 

Bishop Thirlwall calls our attention to a passage in Suidas, 
where the proverb Xtiptg 'nnre'tg is said to have originated from 
some Ionian Greeks, who were serving compulsorily in the army 
of Datis, contriving to inform Miltiades that the Persian cavalry 
had gone away, whereupon Miltiades immediately joined battle 
and gained the victory. There may probably be a gleam of 
truth in this legend. If Datis's cavalry was numerous, as the 
abundant pastures of Eubcea were close at hand, the Persian 
general, when he thought, from the inaction of his enemy, that 
they did not mean to come down from the heights and give bat- 
tle, might naturally send the larger part of his horse back across 
the channel to the neighborhood of Eretria, where he had already 
left a detachment, and where his military stores must have been 
deposited. The knowledge of such a movement would of course 
confirm Miltiades in his resolution to bring on a speedy engage- 
ment. 

But, m truth, whatever amount of cavalry we suppose Datis 
to have had with him on the day of Marathon, their inaction in 
the battle is intelligible, if we believe the attack of the Athenian 
spearmen to have been as sudden as it was rapid. The Persian 
horse-soldier, on an alarm being given, had to take the shackles 
off his horse, to strap the saddle on, and bridle him, besides 
equipping himself (see Xenoph., Anab., lib. iii., c. 4) ; and when 
each individual horseman was ready, the line had to be formed ; 
and the time that it takes to form the Oriental cavalry in line 
for a charge has, in all ages, been observed by Europeans. 

The wet state of the marshes at each end of the plain, in the 
time of year when the battle was fought, has been adverted to by 
Mr. Wordsworth ; and this would hinder the Persian general from 
arranging and employing his horsemen on his extreme wings, 
while it also enabled the Greeks, as they came forward, to occupy 
the whole breadth of the practicable ground with an unbroken 
line of levelled spears, against which, if any Persian horse ad- 
vanced, they would be driven back in confusion upon their own 
foot. 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 33 

Even numerous and fully arrayed bodies of cavalry have been 
repeatedly broken, both in ancient and modern warfare, by res- 
olute charges of infantry. For instance, it was by an attack of 
some picked cohorts that Caesar routed the Pompeian cavalry, 
which had previously defeated his own at Pharsalia. 

I have represented the battle of Marathon as beginning in the 
afternoon and ending towards evening. If it had lasted all day, 
Herodotus would have probably mentioned that fact. That it 
ended towards evening is, I think, proved by the line from the 
" Vespae " which I have already quoted, and to which my atten- 
tion was called by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's account of the 
battle. I think that the succeeding lines in Aristophanes, also 
already quoted, justify the description which I have given of 
the rear ranks of the Persians keeping up a flight of arrows over 
the heads of their comrades against the Greeks. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF MARATHON, 
B.C. 490, AND THE DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS AT SYRA- 
CUSE, b.c. 413. 

b.c. 490 to 487. All Asia is filled with the preparations made 
by King Darius for a new expedition against Greece. Themis- 
tocles persuades the Athenians to leave off dividing the proceeds 
of their silver mines among themselves, and to employ the money 
in strengthening their navy. 

487. Egypt revolts from the Persians, and delays the expedi- 
tion against Greece. 

485. Darius dies, and Xerxes, his son, becomes King of Per- 
sia in his stead. 

484. The Persians recover Egypt. 

480. Xerxes invades Greece. Indecisive actions between the 
Persian and Greek fleets at Artemisium. Destruction of the 
three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae. The Athenians aban- 
don Attica and go on shipboard. Great naval victory of the 
Greeks at Salamis. Xerxes returns to Asia, leaving a chosen 
army under Mardonius to carry on the war against the Greeks. 

478. Mardonius and his army destroyed by the Greeks at 
Plataea. The Greeks land in Asia Minor, and defeat a Persian 
force at Mycale. In this and the following years the Persians 
lose all their conquests in Europe, and many on the coast of 
Asia. 

477. Many of the Greek maritime states take Athens as their 
leader, instead of Sparta. 



34 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

466. Victories of Cimon over the Persians at the Eurymedon. 

464. Revolt of the Helots against Sparta. Third Messenian 
war. 

460. Egypt again revolts against Persia. The Athenians send 
a powerful armament to aid the Egyptians, which, after gaining 
some successes, is destroyed, and Egypt submits. This war 
lasted six years. 

457. Wars in Greece between the Athenian and several Pelo- 
ponnesian states. Immense exertions of Athens at this time. 
" There is an original inscription still preserved in the Louvre, 
which attests the energies of Athens at this crisis, when Athens, 
like England in modern wars, at once sought conquests abroad, 
and repelled enemies at home. At the period we now advert 
to (b.c. 457), an Athenian armament of two hundred galleys 
was engaged in a bold though unsuccessful expedition against 
Egypt. The Athenian crews had landed, had won a battle ; 
they had then re-embarked and sailed up the Nile, and were 
busily besieging the Persian garrison in Memphis. As the com- 
plement of a trireme galley was at least two hundred men, we 
cannot estimate the forces then employed by Athens against 
Egypt at less than forty thousand men. At the same time she 
kept squadrons on the coasts of Phoenicia and Cyprus, and yet 
maintained a home fleet that enabled her to defeat her Pelopon- 
nesian enemies at Cecryphalse and ^Egina, capturing in the last 
engagement seventy galleys. This last fact may give us some 
idea of the strength of the Athenian home fleet that gained the 
victory ; and by adopting the same ratio of multiplying what- 
ever number of galleys we suppose to have been employed by 
two hundred, so as to gain the aggregate number of the crews, 
we may form some estimate of the forces which this little Greek 
state then kept on foot. Between sixty and seventy thousand 
men must have served in her fleets during that year. Her tenac- 
ity of purpose was equal to her boldness of enterprise. Sooner 
than yield or withdraw from any of their expeditions, the Athe- 
nians at this very time, when Corinth sent an army to attack 
their garrison at Megara, did not recall a single crew or a sin- 
gle soldier from ^Egina or from abroad ; but the lads and old 
men, who had been left to guard the city, fought and won a 
battle against these new assailants. The inscription which we 
have referred to is graven on a votive tablet to the memory of 
the dead, erected in that year by the Erecthean tribe, one of the 
ten into which the Athenians were divided. It shows, as Thirl- 
wali has remarked, 'that the Athenians were conscious of the 



BATTLE OF MARATHON. 35 

greatness of their own effort ;' and in it this little civic commu- 
nity of the ancient world still ' records to us with emphatic sim- 
plicity that " its slain fell in Cyprus, in Egypt, in Phoenicia, at 
Halise, in JEgina, and in Megara, in the same year" ' " * 

455. A thirty years' truce concluded between Athens and 
Lacedaemon. 

440. The Samians endeavor to throw off the supremacy of 
Athens. Samos completely reduced to subjection. Pericles is 
now sole director of the Athenian councils. 

431. Commencement of the great Peloponnesian war, in which 
Sparta, at the head of nearly all the Peloponnesian states, and 
aided by the Boeotians and some of the other Greeks beyond 
the Isthmus, endeavors to reduce the power of Athens, and to 
restore independence to the Greek maritime states who were the 
subject allies of Athens. At the commencement of the war the 
Peloponnesian armies repeatedly invade and ravage Attica, but 
Athens herself is impregnable, and her fleets secure her the do- 
minion of the sea. 

430. Athens visited by a pestilence, which sweeps off large 
numbers of her population. 

425. The Athenians gain great advantages over the Spartans 
at Sphacteria, and by occupying Cythera; but they suffer a 
severe defeat in Bceotia, and the Spartan general, Brasidas, leads 
an expedition to the Thracian coasts, and conquers many of the 
most valuable Athenian possessions in those regions. 

421. Nominal truce for thirty years between Athens and 
Sparta, but hostilities continue on the Thracian coast and in 
other quarters. 

415. The Athenians send an expedition to conquer Sicily. 

" * Paeans of the Athenian Navy." 



§6 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 



CHAPTER II. 

DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS AT SYRACUSE, B.C. 413. 

" The Romans knew not, and could not know, how deeply the greatness of 
their own posterity, and the fate of the whole Western world, were involved 
in the destruction of the fleet of Athens in the harbor of Syracuse. Had 
that great expedition proved victorious, the energies of Greece during the 
next eventful century would have found their field in the West no less than 
in the East ; Greece, and not Rome, might have conquered Carthage ; Greek 
instead of Latin might have been at this day the principal element of the 
language of Spain, of France, and of Italy ; and the laws of Athens, rather 
than of Rome, might be the foundation of the law of the civilized world." — 
Arnold. 

" The great expedition to Sicily, one of the most decisive events in the 
history of the world." — Niebuhr. 

Few cities have undergone more memorable sieges during an- 
cient and mediaeval times than has the city of Syracuse. Athe- 
nian, Carthaginian, Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Saracen, and Nor- 
man have in turns beleaguered her walls ; and the resistance 
which she successfully opposed to some of her assailants was 
of the deepest importance, not only to the fortunes of the gen- 
erations then in being, but to all the subsequent current of hu- 
man events. To adopt the eloquent expressions of Arnold re- 
specting the check which she gave to the Carthaginian arms, 
" Syracuse was a breakwater which God's providence raised 
up to protect the yet immature strength of Rome." And her 
triumphant repulse of the great Athenian expedition against 
her was of even more widespread and enduring importance. It 
forms a decisive epoch in the strife for universal empire, in 
which all the great states of antiquity successively engaged and 
failed. 

The present city of Syracuse is a place of little or no military 
strength, as the fire of artillery from the neighboring heights 
would almost completely command it. But in ancient warfare 
its position, and the care bestowed on its walls, rendered it for- 
midably strong against the means of offence which then were 
employed by besieging armies. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 37 

The ancient city, in the time of the Peloponnesian war, was 
chiefly built on the knob of land which projects into the sea on 
the eastern coast of Sicily, between two bays ; one of which, to 
the north, was called the Bay of Thapsus, while the southern 
one formed the great harbor of the city of Syracuse itself. A 
small island, or peninsula (for such it soon was rendered), lies 
at the southeastern extremity of this knob of land, stretching 
almost entirely across the mouth of the great harbor, and ren- 
dering it nearly land-locked. This island comprised the origi- 
nal settlement of the first Greek colonists from Corinth, who 
founded Syracuse two thousand five hundred years ago ; and 
the modern city has shrunk again into these primary limits. 
But, in the fifth century before our era, the growing wealth and 
population of the Syracusans had led them to occupy and in- 
clude within their city walls portion after portion of the main- 
land lying next to the little isle ; so that at the time of the Athe- 
nian expedition the seaward part of the land between the two 
bays already spoken of was built over, and fortified from bay 
to bay, constituting the larger part of Syracuse. 

The landward wall, therefore, of the city traversed this knob 
of land, which continues to slope upwards from the sea, and 
which to the west of the old fortifications (that is, towards the 
interior of Sicily) rises rapidly for a mile or two, but diminishes 
in width, and finally terminates in a long, narrow ridge, between 
which and Mount Hybla a succession of chasms and uneven low 
ground extend. On each flank of this ridge the descent is steep 
and precipitous from its summits to the strips of level land that 
lie immediately below it, both to the southwest and northwest. 

The usual mode of assailing fortified towns in the time of 
the Peloponnesian war was to build a double wall round them, 
sufficiently strong to check any sally of the garrison from 
within, or any attack of a relieving force from without. The 
interval within the two walls of the circumvallation was roofed 
over, and formed barracks, in which the besiegers posted them- 
selves, and awaited the effects of want or treachery among the 
besieged in producing a surrender. And in. every Greek city 
of those days, as in every Italian republic of the Middle Ages, 
the rage of domestic sedition between aristocrats and demo- 
crats ran high. Rancorous refugees swarmed in the camp of 
every invading enemy ; and every blockaded city was sure to 
contain within its walls a body of intriguing malcontents, w r ho 
were eager to purchase a party triumph at the expense of a 
national disaster. Famine and faction were the allies on whom 



38 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

besiegers relied. The generals of that time trusted to the oper- 
ation of these sure confederates as soon as they could establish 
a complete blockade. They rarely ventured on the attempt to 
storm any fortified post. For the military engines of antiquity 
were feeble in breaching masonry, before the improvements 
which the first Dionysius effected in the mechanics of destruc- 
tion ; and the lives of spearmen, the boldest and most highly 
trained would, of course, have been idly spent in charges against 
unshattered walls. 

A city built close to the sea, like Syracuse, was impregnable, 
save by the combined operations of a superior hostile fleet and a 
superior hostile army. And Syracuse, from her size, her popu- 
lation, and her military and naval resources, not unnaturally 
thought herself secure from finding in another Greek city a foe 
capable of sending a sufficient armament to menace her with 
capture and subjection. But in the spring of 414 b.c. the Athe- 
nian navy was mistress of her harbor and the adjacent seas ; an 
Athenian army had defeated her troops, and cooped them with- 
in the town ; and from bay to bay a blockading-wall was being 
rapidly carried across the strips of level ground and the high 
ridge outside the city (then termed Epipolse), which, if com- 
pleted, would have cut the Syracusans off from all succor from 
the interior of Sicily, and have left them at the mercy of the 
Athenian generals. The besiegers' works were, indeed, un- 
finished ; but every day the unfortified interval in their lines 
grew narrower, and with it diminished all apparent hope of 
safety for the beleaguered town. 

Athens was now staking the flower of her forces, and the ac- 
cumulated fruits of seventy years of glory, on one bold throw 
for the dominion of the Western world. As Napoleon from 
Mount Coeur de Lion pointed to St. Jean d'Acre, and told his 
staff that the capture of that town would decide his destiny and 
would change the face of the world; so the Athenian officers, 
from the heights of Epipolse, must have looked on Syracuse, 
and felt that with its fall all the known powers of the earth 
would fall beneath them. They must have felt that Athens, if 
repulsed there, must pause forever in her career of conquest, 
and sink from an imperial republic into a ruined and subservi- 
ent community. 

At Marathon, the first in date of the great battles of the 
world, we beheld Athens struggling for self-preservation 
against the invading armies of the East. At Syracuse she ap- 
pears as the ambitious and oppressive invader of others. In 



AT SYRACUSE, s.c. 1*18. 39 

her, as in other republics of old and of modern times, the same 
energy that had inspired the most heroic efforts in defence of 
the national independence soon learned to employ itself in 
daring and unscrupulous schemes of self-aggrandizement at the 
expense of neighboring nations. In the interval between the 
Persian and Peloponnesian wars she had rapidly grown into a 
conquering and dominant state, the chief of a thousand tribu- 
tary cities, and the mistress of the largest and best-manned 
navy that the Mediterranean had yet beheld. The occupation 
of her territory by Xerxes and Mardonius, in the second Per- 
sian war, had forced her whole population to become mariners ; 
and the glorious results of that struggle confirmed them in 
their zeal for their country's service at sea. The voluntary 
suffrage of the Greek cities of the coasts and islands of the 
^Egean first placed Athens at the head of the confederation 
formed for the further prosecution of the war against Persia. 
But this titular ascendency was soon converted by her into 
practical and arbitrary dominion. She protected them from 
piracy and the Persian power, which soon fell into decrepitude 
and decay ; but she exacted in return implicit obedience to her- 
self. She claimed and enforced a prerogative of taxing them 
at her discretion ; and proudly refused to be accountable for 
her mode of expending their supplies. Remonstrance against 
her assessments was treated as factious disloyalty ; and refusal 
to pay was promptly punished as revolt. Permitting and en- 
couraging her subject allies to furnish all their contingents in 
money, instead of part consisting of ships and men, the sov- 
ereign republic gained the double object of training her own 
citizens by constant and well-paid service in her fleets, and of 
seeing her confederates lose their skill and discipline by in- 
action, and become more and more passive and powerless under 
her yoke. Their towns were generally dismantled, while the 
imperial city herself was fortified with the greatest care and 
sumptuousness ; the accumulated revenues from her tributaries 
serving to strengthen and adorn to the utmost her havens, her 
docks, her arsenals, her theatres, and her shrines, and to array 
her in that plenitude of architectural magnificence the ruins of 
which still attest the intellectual grandeur of the age and people 
which produced a Pericles to plan and a Phidias to execute. 

All republics that acquire supremacy over other nations rule 
them selfishly and oppressively. There is no exception to this 
in either ancient or modern times. Carthage, Rome, Venice, 
Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Holland, and Republican France, all tyran- 



40 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

nized over every province and subject state where they gained 
authority. But none of them openly avowed their system of 
doing so upon principle with the candor which the Athenian 
republicans displayed when any remonstrance was made against 
the severe exactions which they imposed upon their vassal 
allies. They avowed that their empire was a tyranny, and 
frankly stated that they solely trusted to force and terror to up- 
hold it. They appealed to what they called " the eternal law 
of nature, that the weak should be coerced by the strong."* 
Sometimes they stated, and not without some truth, that the 
unjust hatred of Sparta against themselves forced them to be 
unjust to others in self-defence. To be safe they must be 
powerful ; and to be powerful they must plunder and coerce 
their neighbors. They never dreamed of communicating any 
franchise, or share in office, to their dependants ; but jealously 
monopolized every post of command, and all political and judi- 
cial power; exposing themselves to every risk with unflinching 
gallantry ; enduring cheerfully the laborious training and severe 
discipline which their sea-service required ; venturing readily 
on every ambitious scheme ; and never suffering difficulty or 
disaster to shake their tenacity of purpose. Their hope was to 
acquire unbounded empire for their country, and the means of 
maintaining each of the thirty thousand citizens who made up 
the sovereign republic, in exclusive devotion to military occupa- 
tions, and to those brilliant sciences and arts in which Athens 
already had reached the meridian of intellectual splendor. 

Her great political dramatist speaks of the Athenian empire 
as comprehending a thousand states. The language of the 
stage must not be taken too literally ; but the number of the 
dependencies of Athens, at the time when the Peloponnesian 
confederacy attacked her, was undoubtedly very great. With 
a few trifling exceptions, all the islands of the ^Egean, and all 
the Greek cities which in that age fringed the coasts of Asia 
Minor, the Hellespont, and Thrace, paid tribute to Athens, and 
implicitly obeyed her orders. The ^Egean Sea was an Attic 
lake. Westward of Greece, her influence, though strong, was 
not equally predominant. She had colonies and allies among 
the wealthy and populous Greek settlements in Sicily and South 
Italy, but she had no organized system of confederates in those 
regions ; and her galleys brought her no tribute from the west- 
ern seas. The extension of her empire over Sicily was the fa- 

* 'Ati Ka9eaTu)TOQ tov i'jocru) virb dvvarojrtpoi Ka.Tupye.a9ai. — Thuc, i., 77. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 41 

vorite project of her ambitious orators and generals. While 
her great statesman Pericles lived, his commanding genius kept 
his countrymen under control, and forbade them to risk the 
fortunes of Athens in distant enterprises while they had un- 
subdued and powerful enemies at their doors. He taught 
Athens this maxim, but he also taught her to know and to use 
her own strength ; and when Pericles had departed, the bold 
spirit which he had fostered overleaped the salutary limits 
which he had prescribed. When her bitter enemies, the Co- 
rinthians, succeeded, in 431 b.c, in inducing Sparta to attack 
her, and a confederacy was formed of five sixths of the Conti- 
nental Greeks, all animated by anxious jealousy and bitter 
hatred of Athens ; when armies far superior in numbers and 
equipment to those which had marched against the Persians 
were poured into the Athenian territory, and laid it waste to 
the city walls ; the general opinion was that Athens would, in 
two or three years at the farthest, be reduced to submit to the 
requisitions of her invaders. But her strong fortifications, by 
which she was girt and linked to her principal haven, gave her, 
in those ages, almost all the advantages of an insular position. 
Pericles had made her trust to her empire of the seas. Every 
Athenian in those days was a practised seaman. A state in- 
deed whose members, of an age fit for service, at no time ex- 
ceeded thirty thousand, and whose territorial extent did not 
equal half Sussex, could only have acquired such a naval do- 
minion as Athens once held, by devoting and zealously train- 
ing all its sons to service in its fleets. In order to man the 
numerous galleys which she sent out, she necessarily employed 
also large numbers of hired mariners and slaves at the oar ; but 
the staple of her crews was Athenian, and all posts of command 
were held by native citizens. It was by reminding them 
of this, of their long practice in seamanship, and the certain 
superiority which their discipline gave them over the enemy's 
marine, that their great minister mainly encouraged them to 
resist the combined power of Lacedaemon and her allies. He 
taught them that Athens might thus reap the fruit of her zeal- 
ous devotion to maritime affairs ever since the invasion of the 
Medes ; " she had not, indeed, perfected herself; but the reward 
of her superior training was the rule of the sea — a mighty do- 
minion, for it gave her the rule of much fair land beyond its 
waves, safe from the idle ravages with which the Lacedae- 
monians might harass Attica, but never could subdue Athens." * 

*Thuc, lib. i., sec. 144. 



42 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

Athens accepted the war with which her enemies threatened 
her rather than descend from her pride of place. And though 
the awful visitation of the plague came upon her, and swept 
away more of her citizens than the Dorian spear laid low, she 
held her own gallantly against her foes. If the Peloponnesian 
armies in irresistible strength wasted every spring her corn- 
lands, her vineyards, and her olive-groves with fire and sword, 
she retaliated on their coasts with her fleets ; which, if resisted, 
were only resisted to display the pre-eminent skill and bravery 
of her seamen. Some of her subject-allies revolted, but the re- 
volts were in general sternly and promptly quelled. The genius 
of one enemy had, indeed, inflicted blows on her power in Thrace 
which she was unable to remedy ; but he fell in battle in the 
tenth year of the war ; and with the loss of Brasidas the Lace- 
daemonians seemed to have lost all energy and judgment. Both 
sides at length grew weary of the war; and in 421 B.C. a truce 
of fifty years was concluded, which, though ill kept, and though 
many of the confederates of Sparta refused to recognize it, and 
hostilities still continued in many parts of Greece, protected the 
Athenian territory from the ravages of enemies, and enabled 
Athens to accumulate large sums out of the proceeds of her an- 
nual revenues. So also, as a few years passed by, the havoc 
which the pestilence and the sword had made in her population 
was repaired; and in 415 b.c. Athens was full of bold and rest- 
less spirits, who longed for some field of distant enterprise, 
wherein they might signalize themselves and aggrandize the 
state, and who looked on the alarm of Spartan hostility as a 
mere old woman's tale. When Sparta had wasted their terri- 
tory she had done her worst ; and the fact of its always being 
in her power to do so seemed a strong reason for seeking to 
increase the transmarine dominion of Athens. 

The West was now the quarter towards which the thoughts 
of every aspiring Athenian were directed. From the very be- 
ginning of the war Athens had kept up an interest in Sicily ; 
and her squadrons had from time to time appeared on its coasts 
and taken part in the dissensions in which the Sicilian Greeks 
were universally engaged one against the other. There were 
plausible grounds for a direct quarrel and an open attack by the 
Athenians upon Syracuse. 

With the capture of Syracuse all Sicily, it was hoped, would 
be secured. Carthage and Italy were next to be assailed. With 
large levies of Iberian mercenaries she then meant to overwhelm 
her Peloponnesian enemies. The Persian monarchy lay in hope- 



AT SYRACUSE, b.g. 41s. 43 

less imbecility, inviting Greek invasion ; nor did the known 
world contain the power that seemed capable of checking the 
growing might of Athens, if Syracuse once could be hers. 

The national historian of Rome has left us, as an episode of 
his great work, a disquisition on the probable effects that would 
have followed if Alexander the Great had invaded Italy. Pos- 
terity has generally regarded that disquisition as proving Livy's 
patriotism more strongly than his impartiality or acuteness. Yet, 
right or wrong, the speculations of the Roman writer were direct- 
ed to the consideration of a very remote possibility. To what- 
ever age Alexander's life might have been prolonged, the East 
would have furnished full occupation for his martial ambition, 
as well as for those schemes of commercial grandeur and impe- 
rial amalgamation of nations in which the truly great qualities 
of his mind loved to display themselves. With his death the 
dismemberment of his empire among his generals was certain, 
even as the dismemberment of Napoleon's empire among his 
marshals would certainly have ensued if he had been cut off in 
the zenith of his power. Rome, also, was far weaker when the 
Athenians were in Sicily than she was a century afterwards, in 
Alexander's time. There can be little doubt but that Rome 
would have been blotted out from the independent powers of 
the West had she been attacked at the end of the fifth century 
B.C. by an Athenian army, largely aided by Spanish mercenaries, 
and flushed with triumphs over Sicily and Africa, instead of the 
collision between her and Greece having been deferred until the 
latter had sunk into decrepitude and the Roman Mars had grown 
into full vigor. 

The armament which the Athenians equipped against Syra- 
cuse was in every way worthy of the state which formed such 
projects of universal empire ; and it has been truly termed "the 
noblest that ever yet had been sent forth by a free and civilized 
commonwealth." * The fleet consisted of one hundred and 
thirty-four war-galleys, with a multitude of store-ships. A pow- 
erful force of the best heavy-armed infantry that Athens and 
her allies could furnish was sent on board, together with a smaller 
number of slingers and bowmen. The quality of the forces was 
even more remarkable than the number. The zeal of individu- 
als vied with that of the republic in giving every galley the best 
possible crew and every troop the most perfect accoutrements. 
And with private as well as public wealth eagerly lavished on 

* Arnold's " History of Rome." 



44 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

all that could give splendor as well as efficiency to the expedi- 
tion, the fated fleet began its voyage for the Sicilian shores in 
the summer of 415 b.c. 

The Syracusans themselves, at the time of the Peloponnesian 
war, were a bold and turbulent democracy, tyrannizing over the 
weaker Greek cities in Sicily, and trying to gain in that island 
the same arbitrary supremacy which Athens maintained along 
the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. In numbers and in spirit 
they were fully equal to the Athenians, but far inferior to them 
in military and naval discipline. When the probability of an 
Athenian invasion was first publicly discussed at Syracuse, and 
efforts were made by some of the wiser citizens to improve the 
state of the national defences and prepare for the impending dan- 
ger, the rumors of coming war and the proposals for prepara- 
tion were received by the mass of the Syracusans with scornful 
incredulity. The speech of one of their popular orators is pre- 
served to us in Thucydides,* and many of its topics might, by 
a slight alteration of names and details, serve admirably for the 
party among ourselves at present which opposes the augmenta- 
tion of our forces, and derides the idea of our being in any peril 
from the sudden attack of a French expedition. The Syracusan 
orator told his countrymen to dismiss with scorn the visionary 
terrors which a set of designing men among themselves strove 
to excite, in order to get power and influence thrown into their 
own hands. He told them that Athens knew her own interest 
too well to think of wantonly provoking their hostility : " Even 
if the enemies were to come" said he, " so distant from their 
resources, and opposed to such a power as ours, their destruction 
would be easy and inevitable. Their ships will have enough to 
do to get to our island at all, and to carry such stores of all sorts 
as tvill be needed. They cannot therefore carry, besides, an army 
large enough to cope with such a population as ours. They will 
have no fortified place from which to commence their operations; 
but must rest them on no better base than a set of wretched tents, 
and such means as the necessities of the moment will allow them. 
But, in truth, I do not believe that they would even be able to effect 
a disembarkation. Let us, therefore, set at nought these reports as 
altogether of home manufacture ; and be sure that, if any enemy 
does come, the state will know how to defend itself in a manner 
ivorthy of the national honor." 

* Lib. vi., sec. 36 et seq., Arnold's edition. I have almost literally tran- 
scribed some of the marginal epitomes of the original speech. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 45 

Such assertions pleased the Syracusan assembly ; and their 
counterparts find favor now among some portions of the Eng- 
lish public. But the invaders of Syracuse came ; made good 
their landing in Sicily ; and, if they had promptly attacked the 
city itself, instead of wasting nearly a year in desultory opera- 
tions in other parts of the island, the Syracusans must have paid 
the penalty of their self-sufficient carelessness in submission to 
the Athenian yoke. But of the three generals who led the 
Athenian expedition, two only were men of ability, and one was 
most weak and incompetent. Fortunately for Syracuse, Alcibi- 
ades, the most skilful of the three, was soon deposed from his 
command by a factious and fanatic vote of his fellow-country- 
men, and the other competent one, Lamachus, fell early in a skir- 
mish ; while, more fortunately still for her, the feeble and vac- 
illating Nicias remained unrecalled and unhurt, to assume the 
undivided leadership of the Athenian army and fleet, and to mar, 
by alternate over-caution and over-carelessness, every chance of 
success which the early part of the operations offered. Still, 
even under him, the Athenians nearly won the town. They de- 
feated the raw levies of the Syracusans, cooped them within the 
walls, and, as before mentioned, almost effected a continuous 
fortification from bay to bay over Epipohe, the completion of 
which would certainly have been followed by capitulation. 

Alcibiades, the most complete example of genius without prin- 
ciple that history produces, the Bolingbroke of antiquity, but 
with high military talents superadded to diplomatic and orator- 
ical powers, on being summoned home from his command in 
Sicily to take his trial before the Athenian tribunal, had escaped 
to Sparta ; and he exerted himself there with all the selfish ran- 
cor of a renegade to renew the war with Athens, and to send 
instant assistance to Syracuse. 

When we read his words in the pages of Thucydides (who 
was himself an exile from Athens at this period, and may prob- 
ably have been at Sparta, and heard Alcibiades speak), we are 
at loss whether most to admire or abhor his subtle and traitor- 
ous counsels. After an artful exordium, in which he tried to 
disarm the suspicions which he felt must be entertained of him, 
and to point out to the Spartans how completely his interests 
and theirs were identified, through hatred of the Athenian de- 
mocracy, he thus proceeded : " Hear me, at any rate, on the 
matters which require your grave attention, and which I, from 
the personal knowledge that I have of them, can and ought to 
bring before you. We Athenians sailed to Sicily with the de- 



46 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIAN'S 

sign of subduing, first the Greek cities there, and next those in 
Italy. Then we intended to make an attempt on the dominions 
of Carthage and on Carthage itself.* If all these projects suc- 
ceeded (nor did we limit ourselves to them in these quarters), 
we intended to increase our fleet with the inexhaustible supplies 
of ship timber which Italy affords, to put in requisition the whole 
military force of the conquered Greek states, and also to hire 
large armies of the barbarians — of the Iberians, \ and others in 
those regions, who are allowed to make the best possible sol- 
diers. Then, when we had done all this, we intended to assail 
Peloponnesus with our collected force. Our fleets would block- 
ade you by sea, and desolate your coasts ; our armies would be 
landed at different points, and assail your cities. Some of these 
we expected to storm, J and others we meant to take by surround- 
ing them with fortified lines. We thought that it would thus 
be an easy matter thoroughly to war you down ; and then we 
should become the masters of the whole Greek race. As for 
expense, we reckoned that each conquered state would give us 
supplies of money and provisions sufficient to pay for its own 
conquest, and furnish the means for the conquest of its neigh- 
bors. 

" Such are the designs of the present Athenian expedition to 
Sicily, and you have heard them from the lips of the man who, 
of all men living, is most accurately acquainted with them. The 
other Athenian generals who remain with the expedition will 
endeavor to carry out these plans. And be sure that, without 
your speedy interference, they will all be accomplished. The 
Sicilian Greeks are deficient in military training ; but still, if 
they could be at once brought to combine in an organized resist- 
ance to Athens, they might even now be saved. But as for the 
Syracusans resisting Athens by themselves, they have already, 

* Arnold, in his notes on this passage, well reminds the reader that Agath- 
ocles, with a Greek force far inferior to that of the Athenians at this period, 
did, a century afterwards, very nearly conquer Carthage. 

f It will be remembered that Spanish infantry were the staple of the Car- 
thaginian armies. Doubtless Alcibiades and other leading Athenians had 
made themselves acquainted with the Carthaginian system of carrying on 
war, and meant to adopt it. With the marvellous powers which Alcibiades 
possessed of ingratiating himself with men of every class and every nation, 
and his high military genius, he would have been as formidable a chief of an 
army of condottieri as Hannibal afterwards was. 

\ Alcibiades here alluded to Sparta itself, which was unfortified. His Spar- 
tan hearers must have glanced round them, at these words, with mixed alarm 
and indignation. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 47 

with the whole strength of their population, fought a battle and 
been beaten ; they cannot face the Athenians at sea ; and it is 
quite impossible for them to hold out against the force of their 
invaders. And if this city falls into the hands of the Athenians, 
all Sicily is theirs, and presently Italy also ; and the danger 
which I warned you of from that quarter will soon fall upon 
yourselves. You must, therefore, in Sicily fight for the safety 
of Peloponnesus. Send some galleys thither instantly. Put 
men on board who can work their own way over, and who, as 
soon as they land, can do duty as regular troops. But, above 
all, let one of yourselves, let a man of Sparta, go over to take 
the chief command, to bring into order and effective discipline 
the forces that are in Syracuse, and urge those who at present 
hang back to come forward and aid the Syracusans. The pres- 
ence of a Spartan general at this crisis will do more to save the 
city than a whole army."* The renegade then proceeded to 
urge on them the necessity of encouraging their friends in Sic- 
ily by showing that they themselves were earnest in hostility to 
Athens. He exhorted them not only to march their armies into 
Attica again, but to take up a permanent fortified position in the 
country ; and he gave them in detail information of all that the 
Athenians most dreaded, and how his country might receive the 
most distressing and enduring injury at their hands. 

The Spartans resolved to act on his advice, and appointed 
Gylippus to the Sicilian command. Gylippus was a man who, 
to the national bravery and military skill of a Spartan, united 
political sagacity that was worthy of his great fellow-countryman 
Brasidas ; but his merits were debased by mean and sordid vice ; 
and his is one of the cases in which history has been austerely 
just, and where little or no fame has been accorded to the suc- 
cessful but venal soldier. But for the purpose for which he was 
required in Sicily, an abler man could not have been found in 
Lacedsemon. His country gave him neither men nor money, but 
she gave him her authority ; and the influence of her name and 
of his own talents was speedily seen in the zeal with which the 
Corinthians and other Peloponnesian Greeks began to equip a 
squadron to act under him for the rescue of Sicily. As soon as 
four galleys were ready he hurried over with them to the south- 
ern coast of Italy ; and there, though he received such evil tidings 
of the state of Syracuse that he abandoned all hope of saving 
that city, he determined to remain on the coast, and do what he 
could in preserving the Italian cities from the Athenians. 

* Thuc, lib. vi., sec. 90, 91. 



48 



DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 



So nearly, indeed, had Nicias completed his beleaguering 
lines, and so utterly desperate had the state of Syracuse seem- 
ingly become, that an assembly of the Syracusans was actually 
convened, and they were discussing the terms on which they 



BAY OF 
THAPSUS 




PLAN OP SYRACUSE. 

A, B, C, D. Wall of the Outer City of Syracuse at time of the arrival of Nicias in Sicily. 
E, F. Wall of Ortygia, or the Inner City of Syracuse, at the same time. 
6, H, I. Additional fortification built by the Syracusans in the winter of 416-414 b.c. 

K. Athenian fortification at Syke. 
K, L, M. Southern portion of the Athenian circum vallation from Syke to the Great Harbor. 
N, O. First counter-work erected by the Syracusans. 
P, Q. Second counter-work constructed by the Syracusans. 

K, R. Intended, but unfinished, circum vallation of the Athenians from the northern side 
of Syke to the outer sea at Trogilus. 
S, T, U. Third Syracusan counter-wall. 

V. Outer fort constructed by Gylippus. 
V, W, T. Wall of junction between this outer fort and the third Syracusan counter-work. 

should oiler to capitulate, when a galley was seen dashing into 
the Great Harbor, and making her way towards the town with all 
the speed that her rowers could supply. From her shunning 
the part of the harbor where the Athenian fleet lay, and making 
straight for the Syracusan side, it was clear that she was a friend. 
The enemy's cruisers, careless through confidence of success, made 
no attempt to cut her off ; she touched the beach, and a Corin- 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 49 

thian captain springing on shore from her was eagerly conducted 
to the assembly of the Syracusan people, just in time to prevent 
the fatal vote being put for a surrender. 

Providentially for Syracuse, Gongylus, the commander of the 
galley, had been prevented by an Athenian squadron from fol- 
lowing Gylippus to South Italy, and he had been obliged to push 
direct for Syracuse from Greece. 

The sight of actual succor, and the promise of more, revived 
the drooping spirits of the Syracusans. They felt that they 
were not left desolate to perish ; and the tidings that a Spartan 
was coming to command them confirmed their resolution to con- 
tinue their resistance. Gylippus was already near the city. He 
had learned at Locri that the first report which had reached him 
of the state of Syracuse was exaggerated ; and that there was an 
unfinished space in the besiegers' lines through which it was 
barely possible to introduce reinforcements into the town. Cross- 
ing the straits of Messina, which the culpable negligence of Nicias 
had left unguarded, Gylippus landed on the northern coast of 
Sicily, and there began to collect from the Greek cities an army, 
of which the regular troops that he brought from Peloponnesus 
formed the nucleus. Such was the influence of the name of 
Sparta,* and such were his own abilities and activity, that he 
succeeded in raising a force of about two thousand fully armed 
infantry, with a larger number of irregular troops. Nicias, as 
if infatuated, made no attempt to counteract his operations ; nor, 
when Gylippus marched his little army towards Syracuse, did the 
Athenian commander endeavor to check him. The Syracusans 
marched out to meet him ; and while the Athenians were solely 
intent on completing their fortifications on the southern side 
towards the harbor, Gylippus turned their position by occupy- 
ing the high ground in the extreme rear of Epipolae. He then 
marched through the unfortified interval of Nicias's lines into 
the besieged town ; and, joining his troops with the Syracusan 
forces, after some engagements with varying success, gained the 
mastery over Nicias, drove the Athenians from Epipolae, and 
hemmed them into a disadvantageous position in the low grounds 
near the great harbor. 

The attention of all Greece was now fixed on Syracuse ; and 
every enemy of Athens felt the importance of the opportunity 

* The effect of the presence of a Spartan officer on the troops of the other 
Greeks seems to have been like the effect of the presence of an English offi- 
cer upon native Indian troops. 



50 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

now offered of checking her ambition, and, perhaps, of striking 
a deadly blow at her power. Large reinforcements from Cor- 
inth, Thebes, and other cities now reached the Syracusans ; 
while the baffled and dispirited Athenian general earnestly be- 
sought his countrymen to recall him, and represented the fur- 
ther prosecution of the siege as hopeless. 

But Athens had made it a maxim never to let difficulty or 
disaster drive her back from any enterprise once undertaken, so 
long as she possessed the means of making an effort, however 
desperate, for its accomplishment. With indomitable pertinacity 
she now decreed, instead of recalling her first armament from be- 
fore Syracuse, to send out a second, though her enemies near home 
had now renewed open warfare against her, and by occupying a 
permanent fortification in her territory, had severely distressed 
her population, and were pressing her with almost all the hard- 
ships of an actual siege. She still was mistress of the sea, and 
she sent forth another fleet of seventy galleys, and another army, 
which seemed to drain the very last reserves of her military pop- 
ulation, to try if Syracuse could not be won, and the honor of 
the Athenian arms be preserved from the stigma of retreat. 
Hers was, indeed, a spirit that might be broken, but never 
would bend. At the head of this second expedition she wisely 
placed her best general, Demosthenes, one of the most distin- 
guished officers whom the Peloponnesian war had produced, 
and who, if he had originally held the Sicilian command, would 
soon have brought Syracuse to submission. 

The fame of Demosthenes the general has been dimmed by 
the superior lustre of his great countryman, Demosthenes the 
orator. When the name of Demosthenes is mentioned, it is the 
latter alone that is thought of. The soldier has found no biog- 
rapher. Yet out of the long list of the great men of the Athe- 
nian republic there are few that deserve to stand higher than 
this brave, though finally unsuccessful, leader of her fleets and 
armies in the first half of the Peloponnesian war. In his first 
campaign in ^Etolia he had shown some of the rashness of 
youth, and had received a lesson of caution, by which he prof- 
ited throughout the rest of his career, but without losing any 
of his natural energy in enterprise or in execution. He had 
performed the eminent service of rescuing Naupactus from a 
powerful hostile armament in the seventh year of the war; he 
had then, at the request of the Acarnanian republics, taken on 
himself the office of commander-in-chief of all their forces, and 
at their head he had gained some important advantages over the 



AT SYRACUSE, s.c. 413. 51 

enemies of Athens in Western Greece. His most celebrated 
exploits had been the occupation of Pylos, on the Messenian 
coast, the successful defence of that place against the fleet and 
armies of Lacedsemon, and the subsequent capture of the Spar- 
tan forces on the isle of Sphacteria ; which was the severest 
blow dealt to Sparta throughout the war, and which had mainly 
caused her to humble herself to make the truce with Athens. 
Demosthenes was as honorably unknown in the war of party 
politics at Athens as he was eminent in the war against the for- 
eign enemy. We read of no intrigues of his on either the aris- 
tocratic or democratic side. He was neither in the interest of 
Nicias nor of Cleon. His private character was free from any 
of the stains which polluted that of Alcibiades. On all these 
points the silence of the comic dramatist is decisive evidence in 
his favor. He had also the moral courage, not always combined 
with physical, of seeking to do his duty to his country irrespec- 
tively of any odium that he himself might incur, and unhampered 
by any petty jealousy of those who were associated with him 
in command. There are few men named in ancient history of 
whom posterity would gladly know more, or whom we sympa- 
thize with more deeply in the calamities that befell them, than 
Demosthenes, the son of Alcisthenes, who, in the spring of the 
year 413 b.c, left Piraeus at the head of the second Athenian 
expedition against Sicily. 

His arrival was critically timed ; for Gylippus had encouraged 
the Syracusans to attack the Athenians under Nicias by sea as 
well as by land, and by an able stratagem of Ariston, one of the 
admirals of the Corinthian auxiliary squadron, the Syracusans 
and their confederates had inflicted on the fleet of Nicias the 
first defeat that the Athenian navy had ever sustained from a 
numerically inferior foe. Gylippus was preparing to follow up 
his advantage by fresh attacks on the Athenians on both ele- 
ments, when the arrival of Demosthenes completely changed the 
aspect of affairs, and restored the superiority to the invaders. 
With seventy-three war-galleys in the highest state of efficiency, 
and brilliantly equipped, with a force of five thousand picked 
men of the regular infantry of Athens and her allies, and a still 
larger number of bowmen, javelin-men, and slingers on board, 
Demosthenes rowed round the great harbor with loud cheers and 
martial music, as if in defiance of the Syracusans and their con- 
federates. His arrival had indeed changed their newly born 
hopes into the deepest consternation. The resources of Athens 
seemed inexhaustible, and resistance to her hopeless. They had 



52 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

been told that she was reduced to the last extremities* and that 
her territory was occupied by an enemy ; and yet, here they 
saw her, as if in prodigality of power, sending forth, to make 
foreign conquests, a second armament, not inferior to that with 
which Nicias had first landed on the Sicilian shores. 

With the intuitive decision of a great commander, Demos- 
thenes at once saw that the possession of Epipolse was the key 
to the possession of Syracuse, and he resolved to make a prompt 
and vigorous attempt to recover that position, while his force 
was unimpaired, and the consternation which its arrival had 
produced among the besieged remained unabated. The Syra- 
cusans and their allies had run out an outwork along Epipolse 
from the city w r alls, intersecting the fortified lines of circumval- 
lation which Nicias had commenced, but from which they had 
been driven by Gylippus.* Could Demosthenes succeed in 
storming this outwork, and in re-establishing the Athenian 
troops on the high ground, he might fairly hope to be able to 
resume the circumvallation of the city, and become the con- 
queror of Syracuse ; for, when once the besiegers' lines were 
completed, the number of the troops with which Gylippus had 
garrisoned the place would only tend to exhaust the stores of 
provisions and accelerate its downfall. 

An easily repelled attack was first made on the outwork in the 
daytime, probably more with the view of blinding the besieged 
to the nature of the main operations than with any expectation 
of succeeding in an open assault, with every disadvantage of 
the ground to contend against. But when the darkness had 
set in, Demosthenes formed his men in columns, each soldier 
taking with him five days' provisions, and the engineers and 
workmen of the camp following the troops with their tools, and 
all portable implements of fortification, so as at once to secure 
any advantage of ground that the army might gain. Thus 
equipped and prepared, he led his men along by the foot of the 
southern flank of Epipolse, in a direction towards the interior of 
the island, till he came immediately below the narrow ridge that 
forms the extremity of the high ground looking westward. He 
then wheeled his vanguard to the right, sent them rapidly up 
the paths that wind along the face of the cliff, and succeeded 
in completely surprising the Syracusan outposts, and in placing 
his troops fairly on the extreme summit of the all-important 
Epipolae. Thence the Athenians marched eagerly down the 

* See plan at p. 48. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 53 

slope towards the town, routing some Syracusan detachments 
that were quartered in their way, and vigorously assailing the 
unprotected part of the outwork. All at first favored them. 
The outwork was abandoned by its garrison, and the Athenian 
engineers began to dismantle it. In vain Gylippus brought up 
fresh troops to check the assault ; the Athenians broke and 
drove them back, and continued to press hotly forward, in the 
full confidence of victory. But, amid the general consternation 
of the Syracusans and their confederates, one body of infantry 
stood firm. This was a brigade of their Boeotian allies, which 
was posted low down the slope of Epipolae, outside the city 
walls. Coolly and steadily the Boeotian infantry formed their 
line, and, undismayed by the current of flight around them, ad- 
vanced against the advancing Athenians. This was the crisis 
of the battle. But the Athenian van was disorganized by its 
own previous successes ; and, yielding to the unexpected charge 
thus made on it by troops in perfect order and of the most ob- 
stinate courage, it was driven back in confusion upon the other 
divisions of the army that still continued to press forward. 
When once the tide was thus turned, the Syracusans passed 
rapidly from the extreme of panic to the extreme of vengeful 
daring, and with all their forces they now fiercely assailed the 
embarrassed and receding Athenians. In vain did the officers 
of the latter strive to re-form their line. Amid the din and the 
shouting of the fight, and the confusion inseparable upon a night 
engagement, especially one where many thousand combatants 
were pent and whirled together in a narrow and uneven area, 
the necessary manoeuvres were impracticable ; and though many 
companies still fought on desperately, wherever the moonlight 
showed them the semblance of a foe,* they fought without con- 
cert of subordination ; and not unfrequently, amid the deadly 
chaos, Athenian troops assailed each other. Keeping their 
ranks close, the Syracusans and their allies pressed on against 
the disorganized masses of the besiegers ; and at length drove 
them, with heavy slaughter, over the cliffs, which, scarce an 
hour before, they had scaled full of hope and apparently certain 
of success. 

This defeat was decisive of the event of the siege. The 

* ^Hv fitv yap at\i)vi] \af.nrpa, tiopiov dt o'vtioq dXkt)\ovQ, wc tv oeKijvy tucog 
ry\v \i\v oif/iv tov aiop,aroQ Trpoopa~v ti)v dt yvioaiv tov oikeiov aTTiGT&odai. — 
Time, lib. vii., 44. Compare Tacitus's description of the night engagement in 
the civil war between Vespasian and Vitellius : " Neutro inclinaverat fortuna, 
donee adulta nocte, luna ostenderet acies, falleretqae." — Hist., lib. iii., sec. 23. 



54 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS 

Athenians afterwards struggled only to protect themselves from 
the vengeance which the Syracusans sought to wreak in the 
complete destruction of their invaders. Never, however, was 
vengeance more complete and terrible. A series of sea-fights 
followed, in which the Athenian galleys were utterly destroyed 
or captured. The mariners and soldiers who escaped death in 
disastrous engagements, and in a vain attempt to force a re- 
treat into the interior of the island, became prisoners of war. 
Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death in cold blood ; and 
their men either perished miserably in the Syracusan dungeons, 
or were sold into slavery to the very persons whom, in their 
pride of power, they had crossed the seas to enslave. 

All danger from Athens to the independent nations of the 
West was now forever at an end. She, indeed, continued to 
struggle against her combined enemies and revolted allies with 
unparalleled gallantry ; and many more years of varying warfare 
passed away before she surrendered to their arms. But no suc- 
cess in subsequent conquests could ever have restored her to the 
pre-eminence in enterprise, resources, and maritime skill which 
she had acquired before her fatal reverses in Sicily. Nor among 
the rival Greek republics, whom her own rashness aided to crush 
her, was there any capable of reorganizing her empire or re- 
suming her schemes of conquest. The dominion of Western 
Europe was left for Rome and Carthage to dispute two centuries 
later, in conflicts still more terrible, and with even higher dis- 
plays of military daring and genius, than Athens had witnessed 
either in her rise, her meridian, or her fall. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE EVENTS BETWEEN THE DEFEAT OF THE 
ATHENIANS AT SYRACUSE AND THE BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

412 b.c. Many of the subject allies of Athens revolt from 
her, on her disasters before Syracuse being known ; the seat of 
war is transferred to the Hellespont and eastern side of the 
JEgean. 

410. The Carthaginians attempt to make conquests in Sicily. 

407. Cyrus the Younger is sent by the King of Persia to take 
the government of all the maritime parts of Asia Minor, and 
with orders to help the Lacedaemonian fleet against the Athenian. 

406. Agrigentum taken by the Carthaginians. 

405. The last Athenian fleet destroyed by Lysander at ^Egos- 
potamos. Athens closely besieged. Rise of the power of 
Dionysius at Syracuse. 



AT SYRACUSE, b.c. 413. 55 

404. Athens surrenders. End of the Peloponnesian war. 
The ascendency of Sparta complete throughout Greece. 

403. Thrasybulus, aided by the Thebans and with the conni- 
vance of one of the Spartan kings, liberates Athens from the 
Thirty Tyrants, and restores the democracy. 

401. Cyrus the Younger commences his expedition into 
Upper Asia to dethrone his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon. He 
takes with him an auxiliary force of ten thousand Greeks. He 
is killed in battle at Cunaxa ; and the ten thousand, led by 
Xenophon, effect their retreat in spite of the Persian armies and 
the natural obstacles of their march. 

399. In this, and the five following years, the Lacedaemonians 
under Agesilaus and other commanders, carry on war against 
the Persian satraps in Asia Minor. 

396. Syracuse is besieged by the Carthaginians, and success- 
fully defended by Dionysius. 

394. Rome makes her first great stride in the career of con- 
quest by the capture of Veii. 

393. The Athenian admiral, Conon, in conjunction with the 
Persian satrap, Pharnabazus, defeats the Lacedaemonian fleet off 
Cnidus, and restores the fortifications of Athens. Several of the 
former allies of Sparta in Greece carry on hostilities against her. 

388. The nations of Northern Europe now first appear in 
authentic history. The Gauls overrun great part of Italy, and 
burn Rome. Rome recovers from the blow, but her old enemies, 
the ^Equians and Volscians, are left completely crushed by the 
Gallic invaders. 

387. The peace of Antalcidas is concluded among the Greeks 
by the mediation and under the sanction of the Persian king. 

378 to 361. Fresh wars in Greece. Epaminondas raises 
Thebes to be the leading state of Greece, and the supremacy of 
Sparta is destroyed at the battle of Leuctra. Epaminondas is 
killed in gaining the victory of Mantinea, and the power of 
Thebes falls with him. The Athenians attempt a balancing 
system between Sparta and Thebes. 

359. Philip becomes king of Macedon. 

357. The Social War breaks out in Greece, and lasts three 
years. Its result checks the attempt of Athens to regain her 
old maritime empire. 

356. Alexander the Great is born. 

343. Rome begins her wars with the Samnites : they extend 
over a period of fifty years. The result of this obstinate con- 
test is to secure for her the dominion of Italy. 



56 DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS. 

340. Fresh attempts of the Carthaginians upon Syracuse. 
Timoleon defeats them with great slaughter. 

338. Philip defeats the confederate armies of Athens and 
Thebes at Chseronea, and the Macedonian supremacy over 
Greece is firmly established. 

336. Philip is assassinated, and Alexander the Great becomes 
king of Macedon. He gains several victories over the northern 
barbarians who had attacked Macedonia, and destroys Thebes, 
which, in conjunction with Athens, had taken up arms against 
the Macedonians. 

334. Alexander passes the Hellespont. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 57 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BATTLE OF ARBELA, B.C. 331. 

"Alexander deserves the glory which he has enjoyed for so many centuries 
and among all nations ; but what if he had been beaten at Arbela, having 
the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the deserts in the rear, without any strong 
places of refuge, nine hundred leagues from Macedonia?" — Napoleon. 

" Asia beheld with astonishment and awe the uninterrupted progress 
of a hero, the sweep of whose conquests was as wide and rapid as that of 
her own barbaric kings or the Scythian or Chaldaean hordes ; but, far un- 
like the transient whirlwinds of Asiatic warfare, the advance of the Mace- 
donian leader was no less deliberate than rapid ; at every step the Greek 
power took root, and the language and the civilization of Greece were 
planted from the shores of the YEgean to the banks of the Indus, from the 
Caspian and the great Hyrcanian plain to the cataracts of the Nile ; to exist 
actually for nearly a thousand years, and in their effects to endure forever." 
— Arnold. 

A long and not unmstrnctive list might be made out of illus- 
trious men whose characters have been vindicated during recent 
times from aspersions which for centuries had been thrown on 
them. The spirit of modern inquiry and the tendency of 
modern scholarship, both of which are often said to be solely- 
negative and destructive, have, in truth, restored to splendor, 
and almost created anew, far more than they have assailed with 
censure, or dismissed from consideration as unreal. The truth 
of many a brilliant narrative of brilliant exploits has of late 
years been triumphantly demonstrated ; and the shallowness of 
the sceptical scoffs with which little minds have carped at the 
great minds of antiquity has been in many instances decisively 
exposed. The laws, the politics, and the lines of action adopted 
or recommended by eminent men and powerful nations have 
been examined with keener investigation, and considered with 
more comprehensive judgment, than formerly were brought to 
bear on these subjects. The result has been at least as often 
favorable as unfavorable to the persons and the states so scruti- 
nized ; and many an oft-repeated slander against both measures 
and men has thus been silenced, we may hope, forever. 

The veracity of Herodotus, the pure patriotism of Pericles, of 



58 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

Demosthenes, and of the Gracchi, the wisdom of Cleisthenes 
and of Licinius as constitutional reformers, may be mentioned 
as facts which recent writers have cleared from unjust suspicion 
and censure. And it might be easily shown that the defensive 
tendency which distinguishes the present and recent best his- 
torians of Germany, France, and England, has been equally 
manifested in the spirit in which they have treated the heroes 
of thought and the heroes of action who lived during what we 
term the Middle Ages, and whom it was so long the fashion to 
sneer at or neglect. 

The name of the victor of Arbela has led to these reflections; 
for, although the rapidity and extent of Alexander's conquests 
have through all ages challenged admiration and amazement, the 
grandeur of genius which he displayed in his schemes of com- 
merce, civilization, and of comprehensive union and unity 
among nations, has, until lately, been comparatively unhon- 
ored. This long-continued depreciation was of early date. The 
ancient rhetoricians — a class of babblers, a school for lies and 
scandal, as Niebuhr justly termed them — chose among the stock 
themes for their commonplaces the character and exploits of 
Alexander. They had their followers in every age ; and until a 
very recent period, all who wished to " point a moral or adorn a 
tale " about unreasoning ambition, extravagant pride, and the 
formidable frenzies of free will when leagued with free power, 
have never failed to blazon forth the so-called madman of 
Macedonia as one of the most glaring examples. Without 
doubt, many of these writers adopted with implicit credence 
traditional ideas, and supposed, with uninquiring philanthropy, 
that in blackening Alexander they were doing humanity good 
service. But also, without doubt, many of his assailants, like 
those of other great men, have been mainly instigated by " that 
strongest of all antipathies, the antipathy of a second-rate mind 
to a first-rate one," * and by the envy which talent too often 
bears to genius. 

Arrian, who wrote his history of Alexander when Hadrian 
was emperor of the Roman world, and when the spirit of dec- 
lamation and dogmatism was at its full height, but who was 
himself, unlike the dreaming pedants of the schools, a states- 
man and a soldier of practical and proved ability, well rebuked 
the malevolent aspersions which he heard continually thrown 
upon the memory of the great conqueror of the East. He truly 

* De Stael. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 59 

says, " Let the man who speaks evil of Alexander not merely 
bring forward those passages of Alexander's life which were 
really evil, but let him collect and review all the actions of 
Alexander, and then let him thoroughly consider first who and 
what manner of man he himself is, and what has been his own 
career ; and then let him consider who and what manner of 
man Alexander was, and to what an eminence of human gran- 
deur he arrived. Let him consider that Alexander was a king, 
and the undisputed lord of the two continents ; and that his 
name is renowned throughout the whole earth. Let the evil- 
speaker against Alexander bear all this in mind, and then let 
him reflect on his own insignificance, the pettiness of his own 
circumstances and affairs, and the blunders that he makes about 
these, paltry and trifling as they are. Let him then ask himself 
whether he is a fit person to censure and revile such a man as 
Alexander. I believe that there was in his time no nation of 
men, no city — nay, no single individual — with whom Alexander's 
name had not become a familiar word. I therefore hold that 
such a man, who was like no ordinary mortal, was not born 
into the world without some special providence." * 

And one of the most distinguished soldiers and writers of 
our own nation, Sir Walter Raleigh, though he failed to estimate 
justly the full merits of Alexander, has expressed his sense of 
the grandeur of the part played in the world by " The Great 
Emathian Conqueror" in language that well deserves quota- 
tion : 

" So much hath the spirit of some one man excelled as it 
hath undertaken and effected the alteration of the greatest states 
and commonweals, the erection of monarchies, the conquest of 
kingdoms and empires, guided handfuls of men against multi- 
tudes of equal bodily strength, contrived victories beyond all 
hope and discourse of reason, converted the fearful passions of 
his own followers into magnanimity, and the valor of his enemies 
into cowardice ; such spirits have been stirred up in sundry ages 
of the world, and in divers parts thereof, to erect and cast down 
again, to establish and to destroy, and to bring all things, per- 
sons, and states to the same certain ends, which the infinite 
spirit of the Universal, piercing, moving, and governing all 
things, hath ordained. Certainly, the things that this king did 
were marvellous, and would hardly have been undertaken by 
any one else ; and though his father had determined to have 

* Arrian, lib. vii. ad finem. 



60 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

invaded the Lesser Asia, it is like that he would have contented 
himself with some part thereof, and not have discovered the 
river Indus, as this man did." * 

A higher authority than either Arrian or Raleigh may now 
be referred to by those who wish to know the real merit of 
Alexander as a general, and how far the commonplace assertions 
are true, that his successes were the mere results of fortunate 
rashness and unreasoning pugnacity. Napoleon selected Alex- 
ander as one of the seven greatest generals whose noble deeds 
history has handed down to us, and from the study of whose 
campaigns the principles of war are to be learned. The critique of 
the greatest conqueror of modern times on the military career of 
the great conqueror of the old world is no less graphic than true. 

" Alexander crossed the Dardanelles 334 b.c, with an army 
of about forty thousand men, of which one eighth was cavalry ; he 
forced the passage of the Granicus in opposition to an army 
under Memnon, the Greek, who commanded for Darius on the 
coast of Asia, and he spent the whole of the year 333 in estab- 
lishing his power in Asia Minor. He was seconded by the 
Greek colonists, who dwelt on the borders of the Black Sea, and 
on the Mediterranean, and in Smyrna, Ephesus, Tarsus, Miletus, 
etc. The kings of Persia left their provinces and towns to be 
governed according to their own particular laws. Their empire 
was a union of confederated states, and did not form one na- 
tion ; this facilitated its conquest. As Alexander only wished 
for the throne of the monarch, he easily effected the change by 
respecting the customs, manners, and laws of the people, who 
experienced no change in their condition. 

" In the year 332, he met with Darius at the head of sixty 
thousand men, who had taken up a position near Tarsus, on the 
banks of the Issus, in the province of Cilicia. He defeated him, 
entered Syria, took Damascus, which contained all the riches of 
the Great King, and laid siege to Tyre. This superb metropolis 
of the commerce of the world detained him nine months. He 
took Gaza after a siege of two months ; crossed the desert in 
seven days ; entered Pelusium and Memphis, and founded Alex- 
andria. In less than two years, after two battles and four or five 
sieges, the coasts of the Black Sea from Phasis to Byzantium, 
those of the Mediterranean as far as Alexandria, all Asia Minor, 
Syria, and Egypt, had submitted to his arms. 

" In 331 he repassed the desert, encamped in Tyre, recrossed 

* " The Historie of the World," by Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, p. 628. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 61 

Syria, entered Damascus, passed the Euphrates and Tigris, and 
defeated Darius on the field of Arbcla, when he was at the head 
of a still stronger army than that which he commanded on the 
Issus, and Babylon opened her gates to him. In 330, he over- 
ran Susa, and took that city, Persepolis, and Pasargada, which 
contained the tomb of Cyrus. In 329, he directed his course 
northward, entered Ecbatana, and extended his conquests to the 
coasts of the Caspian ; punished Bessus, the cowardly assassin 
of Darius ; penetrated into Scythia, and subdued the Scythians. 
In 328, he forced the passage of the Oxus, received sixteen 
thousand recruits from Macedonia, and reduced the neighboring 
people to subjection. In 327, he crossed the Indus, vanquished 
Porus in a pitched battle, took him prisoner, and treated him 
as a king. He contemplated passing the Ganges, but his army 
refused. He sailed down the Indus, in the year 326, with 
eight hundred vessels ; having arrived at the ocean, he sent 
Nearchus with a fleet to run along the coasts of the Indian 
Ocean and the Persian Gulf, as far as the mouth of the Eu- 
phrates. In 325, he took sixty days in crossing from Gedro- 
sia, entered Keramania, returned to Pasargada, Persepolis, and 
Susa, and married Statira, the daughter of Darius. In 324, he 
marched once more to the north, passed Ecbatana, and termi- 
nated his career at Babylon." * 

The enduring importance of Alexander's conquests is to be 
estimated not by the duration of his own life and empire, or 
even by the duration of the kingdoms which his generals 
after his death formed out of the fragments of that mighty do- 
minion. In every region of the world that he traversed, Alex- 
ander planted Greek settlements, and founded cities, in the 
populations of which the Greek element at once asserted its 
predominance. Among his successors, the Seleucidae and the 
Ptolemies imitated their great captain in blending schemes of 
civilization, of commercial intercourse, and of literary and scien- 
tific research with all their enterprises of military aggrandize- 
ment, and with all their systems of civil administration. Such 
was the ascendency of the Greek genius, so wonderfully com- 
prehensive and assimilating was the cultivation which it intro- 
duced, that, within thirty years after Alexander crossed the 
Hellespont, the language, the literature, and the arts of Hellas, 
enforced and promoted by the arms of semi-Hellenic Macedon, 
predominated in every country from the shores of that sea to 

* See Count Montholon'a "'Memoirs of Napoleon." 



-<. 



62 BA TTLE OF ARBELA. 

the Indian waters. Even sullen Egypt acknowledged the intel- 
lectual supremacy of Greece ; and the language of Pericles and 
Plato became the language of the statesmen and the sages who 
dwelt in the mysterious land of the Pyramids and the Sphinx. 
It is not to be supposed that this victory of the Greek tongue 
was so complete as to exterminate the Coptic, the Syrian, the 
Armenian, the Persian, or the other native languages of the 
numerous nations and tribes between the ^Egean, the Iaxartes, 
the Indus, and the Nile ; they survived as provincial dialects. 
Each probably was in use as the vulgar tongue of its own dis- 
trict. But every person with the slightest pretence to educa- 
tion spoke Greek. Greek was universally the state language, 
and the exclusive language of all literature and science. It 
formed also for the merchant, the trader, and the traveller, as 
well as for the courtier, the government official, and the soldier, 
the organ of intercommunication among the myriads of man- 
kind inhabiting these large portions of the Old World.* 
Throughout Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the Hellenic char- 
acter that was thus imparted remained in full vigor down to the 
time of the Mahometan conquests. The infinite value of this 
to humanity in the highest and holiest point of view has often 
been pointed out ; and the workings of the finger of Providence 
have been gratefully recognized by those who have observed 
how the early growth and progress of Christianity were aided 
by that diffusion of the Greek language and civilization through- 
out Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt which had been caused by the 
Macedonian conquest of the East. 

In Upper Asia, beyond the Euphrates, the direct and material 
influence of Greek ascendency was more short-lived. Yet dur- 
ing the existence of the Hellenic kingdoms in these regions, es- 
pecially of the Greek kingdom of Bactria, the modern Bokhara, 
very important effects were produced on the intellectual tenden- 
cies and tastes of the inhabitants of those countries and of the 
adjacent ones by the animating contact of the Grecian spirit. 
Much of Hindoo science and philosophy, much of the literature 
of the later Persian kingdom of the Arsacidse, either originated 
from, or was largely modified by, Grecian influences. So, also, 
the learning and science of the Arabians were in a far less de- 
gree the result of original invention and genius than the repro- 
duction, in an altered form, of the Greek philosophy and the 
Greek lore acquired by the Saracenic conquerors together with 

* See Arnold, " History of Rome," ii., 406. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 63 

their acquisition of the provinces which Alexander had sub- 
jugated nearly a thousand years before the armed disciples 
of Mahomet commenced their career in the East. It is well 
known that Western Europe in the Middle Ages drew its phi- 
losophy, its arts, and its science principally from Arabian teach 
ers. And thus we see how the intellectual influence of an- 
cient Greece, poured on the Eastern world by Alexander's vic- 
tories, and then brought back to bear on Mediaeval Europe by 
the spread of the Saracenic powers, has exerted its action on 
the elements of modern civilization by this powerful though 
indirect channel, as well as by the more obvious effects of 
the remnants of classic civilization which survived in Italy, 
Gaul, Britain, and Spain after the irruption of the Germanic 
nations.* 

These considerations invest the Macedonian triumphs in the 
East with never-dying interest, such as the most showy and san- 
guinary successes of mere " low ambition and the pride of kings," 
however they may dazzle for a moment, can never retain with 
posterity. Whether the old Persian empire, which Cyrus 
founded, could have survived much longer than it did, even if 
Darius had been victorious at Arbela, may safely be disputed. 
That ancient dominion, like the Turkish at the present time, 
labored under every cause of decay and dissolution. The sa- 
traps, like the modern pachas, continually rebelled against the 
central power ; and Egypt, in particular, was almost always in a 
state of insurrection ao-ainst its nominal sovereign. There was 
no longer any effective central control, or any internal principle 
of unity fused through the huge mass of the empire and bind- 
ing it together. Persia was evidently about to fall ; but, had it 
not been for Alexander's invasion of Asia, she would most prob- 
ably have fallen beneath some other Oriental power, as Media 
and Babylon had formerly fallen before herself, and as, in after- 
times, the Parthian supremacy gave way to the revived ascen- 
dency of Persia in the East, under the sceptres of the Arsacidae. 
A revolution that merely substituted one Eastern power for an- 
other would have been utterly barren and unprofitable to man- 
kind. 
-srf Alexander's victory at Arbela not only overthrew an Oriental 
dynasty, but established European rulers in its stead. It broke 
the monotony of the Eastern world by the impression of AVest- 
ern energy and superior civilization ; even as England's present 

* See Humboldt's " Cosmos." 



64 BATTLE OF ABBELA. 

mission is to break up the mental and moral stagnation of India 
and Cathay by pouring upon and through them the impulsive 
current of Anglo-Saxon commerce and conquest. 

Arbela, the city which has furnished its name to the decisive 
battle that gave Asia to Alexander, lies more than twenty miles 
from the actual scene of conflict. The little village then named 
Gaugamela is close to the spot where the armies met, but has 
ceded the honor of naming the battle to its more euphonious 
neighbor. Gaugamela is situated in one of the wide plains that 
lie between the Tigris and the mountains of Kurdistan. A few 
undulating hillocks diversify the surface of this sandy track ; 
but the ground is generally level, and admirably qualified for 
the evolutions of cavalry, and also calculated to give the larger 
of two armies the full advantage of numerical superiority. The 
Persian king (who, before he came to the throne, had proved his 
personal valor as a soldier and his skill as a general) had wisely 
selected this region for the third and decisive encounter between 
his forces and the invaders. The previous defeats of his troops, 
however severe they had been, were not looked on as irrepa- 
rable. The Granicus had been fought by his generals rashly and 
without mutual concert. And, though Darius himself had com- 
manded and been beaten at Issus, that defeat might be attributed 
to the disadvantageous nature of the ground ; where, cooped up 
between the mountains, the river, and the sea, the numbers of 
the Persians confused and clogged alike the general's skill and 
the soldiers' prowess, so that their very strength became their 
weakness. Here, on the broad plains of Kurdistan, there was 
scope for Asia's largest host to array its lines, to wheel, to skir- 
mish, to condense or expand its squadrons, to manoeuvre, and to 
charge at will. Should Alexander and his scanty band dare to 
plunge into that living sea of war, their destruction seemed in- 
evitable. 

Darius felt, however, the critical nature to himself as well as 
to his adversary of the coming encounter. He could not hope 
to retrieve the consequences of a third overthrow. The great 
cities of Mesopotamia and Upper Asia, the central provinces of 
the Persian empire, were certain" to be at the mercy of the victor. 
Darius knew also the Asiatic character well enough to be aware 
how it yields to the prestige of success, and the apparent career 
of destiny. He felt that the diadem was now either to be firmly 
replaced on his own brow, or to be irrevocably transferred to the 
head of his European conqueror. He, therefore, during the 
long interval left him after the battle of Issus, while Alexander 



BATTLE OF AliBELA. 65 

was subjugating Syria and Egypt, assiduously busied himself in 
selecting the best troops which his vast empire supplied, and in 
training his varied forces to act together with some uniformity 
of discipline and system. 

The hardy mountaineers of Afghanistan, Bokhara, Khiva, and 
Thibet were then, as at present, far different from the gener- 
ality of Asiatics in warlike spirit and endurance. From these 
districts Darius collected large bodies of admirable infantry ; 
and the countries of the modern Kurds and Turkomans sup- 
plied, as they do now, squadrons of horsemen, strong, skilful, 
bold, and trained to a life of constant activity and warfare. It 
is not uninteresting to notice that the ancestors of our own late 
enemies, the Sikhs, served as allies of Darius against the Mace- 
donians. They are spoken of in Arrian as Indians who dwelt 
near Bactria. They were attached to the troops of that satrapy, 
and their cavalry was one of the most formidable forces in the 
whole Persian army. 

Besides these picked troops, contingents also came in from 
the numerous other provinces that yet obeyed the Great King. 
Altogether, the horse are said to have been forty thousand, the 
scythe-bearing chariots two hundred, and the armed elephants 
fifteen in number. The amount of the infantry is uncertain ; 
but the knowledge which both ancient and modern times supply 
of the usual character of Oriental armies, and of their popula- 
tions of «amp-followers, may warrant us in believing that many 
myriads were prepared to fight, or to encumber those who 
fought, for the last Darius. 

The position of the Persian king near Mesopotamia was 
chosen with great military skill. It was certain that Alexander 
on his return from Egypt must march northward along the 
Syrian coast, before he attacked the central provinces of the 
Persian empire. A direct eastward march from the lower part 
of Palestine across the great Syrian desert was then, as now, 
utterly impracticable. Marching eastward from Syria, Alexan- 
der would, on crossing the Euphrates, arrive at the vast Meso- 
potamian plains. The wealthy capitals of the empire, Babylon, 
Susa, and Persepolis, would then lie to his south ; and if he 
marched down through Mesopotamia to attack them, Darius 
might reasonably hope to follow the Macedonians with his im- 
mense force of cavalry, and, without even risking a pitched bat- 
tle, to harass and finally overwhelm them. We may remember 
that three centuries afterwards a Roman army under Crassus 
was thus actually destroyed by the Oriental archers and horse- 



66 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

men in these very plains ; * and that the ancestors of the Par- 
thians who thus vanquished the Roman legions served by 
thousands under King Darius. If, on the contrary, Alexander 
should defer his march against Babylon, and first seek an en- 
counter with the Persian army, the country on each side of the 
Tigris in this latitude was highly advantageous for such an army 
as Darius commanded ; and he had close in his rear the moun- 
tainous districts of Northern Media, where he himself had in 
early life been satrap, where he had acquired reputation as a 
soldier and a general, and where he justly expected to find 
loyalty to his person and a safe refuge in case of defeat, f 

His great antagonist came on across the Euphrates against 
him, at the head of an army which Arrian, copying from the 
journals of Macedonian officers, states to have consisted of forty 
thousand foot and seven thousand horse. In studying the 
campaigns of Alexander, we possess the peculiar advantage of 
deriving our information from two of Alexander's generals of 
division, who bore an important part in all his enterprises. 
Aristobulus and Ptolemy (who afterwards became king of 
Egypt) kept regular journals of the military events which they 
witnessed ; and these journals were in the possession of Arrian 
when he drew up his history of Alexander's expedition. The 
high character of Arrian for integrity makes us confident that 
he used them fairly, and his comments on the occasional dis- 
crepancies between the two Macedonian narratives prove that 
he used them sensibly. He frequently quotes the very words 
of his authorities: and his history thus acquires a charm such 
as very few ancient or modern military narratives possess. The 
anecdotes and expressions which he records we fairly believe to 
be genuine, and not to be the coinage of a rhetorician, like 
those in Curtius. In fact, in reading Arrian, we read General 
Aristobulus and General Ptolemy on the campaigns of the Mac- 
edonians ; and it is like reading General Jomini or General Foy 
on the campaigns of the French. 

The estimate which we find in Arrian of the strength of Alex- 

* See Mitford. 

\ Mitford's remarks on the strategy of Darius in his last campaign are 
very just. After having been unduly admired as an historian, Mitford is now 
unduly neglected. His partiality, and his deficiency in scholarship, have been 
exposed sufficiently to make him no longer a dangerous guide as to Greek 
politics; while the clearness and brilliancy of his narrative, and the strong 
common-sense of his remarks (where his party prejudices do not interfere) 
must always make his volumes valuable as well as entertaining. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 67 

antler's army seems reasonable when we take into account both 
the losses which he had sustained and the reinforcements which 
he had received since he left Europe. Indeed, to Englishmen, 
who know with what mere handfuls of men our own generals 
have, at Plassy, at Assaye, at Meeanee, and other Indian battles, 
routed large hosts of Asiatics, the disparity of numbers that we 
read of in the victories won by the Macedonians over the Per- 
sians presents nothing incredible. The army which Alexander 
now led was wholly composed of veteran troops in the highest 
possible state of equipment and discipline, enthusiastically de- 
voted to their leader, and full of confidence in his military gen- 
ius and his victorious destiny. 

The celebrated Macedonian phalanx formed the main strength 
of his infantry. This force had been raised and organized by 
his father Philip, who on his accession to the Macedonian throne 
needed a numerous and quickly formed army, and who, by 
lengthening the spear of the ordinary Greek phalanx, and in- 
creasing the depth of the files, brought the tactic of armed 
masses to the greatest efficiency of which it was capable with 
such materials as he possessed.* He formed his men sixteen 
deep, and placed in their grasp the sarissa, as the Macedonian 
pike was called, which was four-and-twenty feet in length, and, 
when couched for action, reached eighteen feet in front of the 
soldier ; so that, as a space of about two feet was allowed be- 
tween the ranks, the spears of the five files behind him project- 
ed in advance of each front-rank man. The phalangite soldier 
was fully equipped in the defensive armor of the regular Greek in- 
fantry. And thus the phalanx presented a ponderous and bris- 
tling mass, which, as long as its order was kept compact, was 
sure to bear down all opposition. The defects of such an or- 
ganization are obvious, and were proved in after-years, when the 
Macedonians were opposed to the Roman legions. But it is 
clear that, under Alexander, the phalanx was not the cumbrous, 
unwieldy body which it was at Cynoscephahe and Pydna. His 
men were veterans ; and he could obtain from them an accuracy 
of movement and steadiness of evolution such as probably the 
recruits of his father would only have floundered in attempting, 
and such as certainly were impracticable in the phalanx when 
handled by his successors, especially as under them it ceased 
to be a standing force, and became only a militia. f Under 

* See Niebuhr's " History of Rome," Hi., 466. 
f See Niebuhr. 



68 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

Alexander the phalanx consisted of an aggregate of eighteen 
thousand men, who were divided into six brigades of three 
thousand each. These were again subdivided into regiments 
and companies ; and the men were carefully trained to wheel, to 
face about, to take more ground, or to close up, as the emer- 
gencies of the battle required. Alexander also arrayed, in the 
intervals of the regiments of his phalangites, troops armed in a 
different manner, which could prevent their line from being 
pierced, and their companies taken in flank, when the nature of 
the ground prevented a close formation ; and which could be 
withdrawn, when a favorable opportunity arrived for closing up 
the phalanx or any of its brigades for a charge, or when it was 
necessary to prepare to receive cavalry. 

Besides the phalanx, Alexander had a considerable force of 
infantry who were called shield-bearers : they were not so heavily 
armed as the phalangites, or as was the case with the Greek 
regular infantry in general ; but they were equipped for close 
fight, as well as for skirmishing, and were far superior to the 
ordinary irregular troops of Greek warfare. They were about 
six thousand strong. Besides these, he had several bodies of 
Greek regular infantry ; and he had archers, slingers, and javelin- 
men, who fought also with broadsword and target. These were 
principally supplied to him by the highlanders of Illyria and 
Thracia. The main strength of his cavalry consisted in two 
chosen corps of cuirassiers — one Macedonian and one Thessalian 
— each of which was about fifteen hundred strong. They were 
provided with long lances and heavy swords, and horse as well 
as man was fully equipped with defensive armor. Other regi- 
ments of regular cavalry were less heavily armed, and there 
were several bodies of light horsemen, whom Alexander's con- 
quests in Egypt and Syria had enabled him to mount superbly. 

A little before the end of August, Alexander crossed the Eu- 
phrates at Thapsacus, a small corps of Persian cavalry under 
Mazseus retiring before him. Alexander was too prudent to 
march down through the Mesopotamian deserts, and continued 
to advance eastward with the intention of passing the Tigris, 
and then, if he was unable to find Darius and bring him to action, 
of marching southward on the left side of that river along the 
skirts of a mountainous district, where his men would suffer less 
from heat and thirst, and where provisions would be more 
abundant. 

Darius, finding that his adversary was not to be enticed into 
the march through Mesopotamia against his capital, determined 






BATTLE OF ARBELA. 69 

to remain on the battle-ground which he had chosen on the left 
of the Tigris ; where, if his enemy met a defeat or a check, the 
destruction of the invaders would be certain with two such rivers 
as the Euphrates and the Tigris in their rear. The Persian 
king availed himself to the utmost of every advantage in his 
power. He caused a large space of ground to be carefully levelled 
for the operation of his scythe-armed chariots ; and he deposited 
his military stores in the strong town of Arbela, about twenty 
miles in his rear. The rhetoricians of after-ages have loved to 
describe Darius Codomannus as a second Xerxes in ostentation 
and imbecility ; but a fair examination of his generalship in this 
his last campaign shows that he was worthy of bearing the same 
name as his great predecessor, the royal son of Hystaspes. 

On learning that Darius was with a large army on the left of 
the Tigris, Alexander hurried forward and crossed that river 
without opposition. He was at first unable to procure any cer- 
tain intelligence of the precise position of the enemy, and after 
giving his army a short interval of rest, he marched for four 
days down the left bank of the river. A moralist may pause 
upon the fact that Alexander must in this march have passed 
within a few miles of the remains of Nineveh, the great city of 
the primeval conquerors of the human race. Neither the 
Macedonian king nor any of his followers knew what those vast 
mounds had once been. They had already become nameless 
masses of grass-grown ruins ; and it is only within the last few 
years that the intellectual energy of one of our own country- 
men has rescued Nineveh from its long centaries of oblivion.* 

On the fourth day of Alexander's southward march, his ad- 
vance guard reported that a body of the enemy's cavalry was in 
sight. He instantly formed his army in order for battle, and, 
directing them to advance steadilv, he rode forward at the head 
of some squadrons of cavalry, and charged the Persian horse 
whom he found before him. This was a mere reconnoitring 
party, and they broke and fled immediately ; but the Macedonians 
made some prisoners, and from them Alexander found that 
Darius was posted only a few miles off, and learned the strength 
of the army that he had with him. On receiving this news, 
Alexander halted, and gave his men repose for four days, so 
that they should go into action fresh and vigorous. He also 
fortified his camp, and deposited in it all his military stores and 
all his sick and disabled soldiers, intending to advance upon 

* See Layard's "Nineveh," and also Vaux's "Nineveh and Persepolis," 
p. 16. 



us array perfectly un- 
I, a hilo it 
g 

.nips 
- of the ground 

Alexander 
s 

I be pro. 

inied 01 
S g these 

sed sians having lied the 

s, Alexander sus 

- snmmonc 

ps were! 
:it opinion of 
- 
till ground had surveyed. 

ghts ; taking with 

hiir. some light-armed Is ssed part 

g the nai 
to tu; - 

s ] - k tl . Macedonians on 

irmies w 
molesting ler's re- 

L his g - L snp< rior 

ssoug : do their utmost 

in ( q g - ting those whom each commanded. 

oind 
: irlit for i proi 
had hitherto foug their 

should nig 

ge , - s ai ior ; 

but :' - minded ;unt importance of 

stead in i sss s smnstbennbi 

as long ass s pi hen the tin ; for the 

. full of terror for 
The - g and comma- 

lers ; - - t thai 

who - ion his own si g goodcon- 



BJ TTLE OF ARBBLA. 71 

Oaring thus briefly ii g tander ordered 

thai the army should sap, and take their rest for the night 

Darkness had closed over the tents of the Macedonia 
when Alexander's veteran general, Parrnenio, came to I 
proposed that they should make a night attack on the J 
The king is said to have answered, that lie scorned to filch a 
victory, and that Alexander must conquer openly and fairly. 
Arrian justly remarks that Alexander's resolution i 

I was spirited. Besides the confusion and uncertainty which 
are inseparable from night engagements, the value of Alexander's 
victory would have been impaired if gained under eircum 
which might supply the enemy with any for his defeat 

and encourage him to renew the contest. It was for 

Alexander not only to beat Darius, but t _ !j a vie 

should leave his rival without apology for defeat, and with- 
out hope of recovery. 

The Persians, in fact, expected, and were prepared to meet, a 
night attack. Such was the apprehension that Darius enter- 
tained of it, that he formed his troops at evening in order of bal 
and kept them under arms all night. The effect of t. 
that the morning found them jaded and dispirited, while it 
brought their adversaries all fresh and vigorous against them. 

The written order of battle which Darius himself caused to 
be drawn up fell into the hands of the Macedonians after the 
engagement, and Ari>tobulus copied it into his journal. We 
thus possi 38, through Arrian, unusually authentic information 
as to the composition and arrangement of the Persian army. 
On the extreme left were the Bactrian, Daan, and Arachosian 
cavalry. Next to these Darius placed the troops from Persia 
proper, both horse and foot. Then came the Susians, and next 
to these the Cadusians. These forces made up the left wing. 
Darius's own station was in the centre. This was composed of 
the Indians, the Carians, the Mardian archers, and the division 
of Persians who were distinguished by the golden apples that 
formed knobs on their spears. Here also were stationed the 
body-guard of the Persian nobility. Besides these, there were 
in the centre, formed in deep order, the Uxian and Babylonian 
troops, and the soldiers from the Peed Sea. The brigade of 
Greek mercenaries whom Darius had in his service, and who 
were alone considered fit to stand in the charge of the M - 
donian phalanx, was drawn up on either side of the royal char- 
iot. The right wing was composed of the Coelosyrians and 
Mesopotamians, the Medes, the Parthians, the Sacians, the Ta- 



72 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

purians, Hyrcanians, Albanians, and Sacesime. In advance of 
the line on the left wing were placed the Scythian cavalry, with 
a thousand of the Bactrian horse, and a hundred scythe-armed 
chariots. The elephants and fifty scythe-armed chariots were 
ranged in front of the centre ; and fifty more chariots, with the 
Armenian and Cappadocian cavalry, were drawn up in advance 
of the right wing. 

Thus arrayed, the great host of King Darius passed the night, 
that to many thousands of them was the last of their existence. 
The morning of the first of October,* two thousand one hun- 
dred and eighty-two years ago, dawned slowly to their wearied 
watching, and they could hear the note of the Macedonian trum- 
pet sounding to arms, and could see King Alexander's forces 
descend from their tents on the heights, and form in order of 
battle on the plain. 

There was deep need of skill, as well as of valor, on Alexan- 
der's side ; and few battle-fields have witnessed more consum- 
mate generalship than was now displayed by the Macedonian 
king. There were no natural barriers by which he could pro- 
tect his flanks ; and not only was he certain to be overlapped on 
either wing by the vast lines of the Persian army, but there was 
imminent risk of their circling round him and charging him in 
the rear, while he advanced against their centre. He formed, 
therefore, a second or reserve line, which was to wheel round, if 
required, or to detach troops to either flank, as the enemy's 
movements might necessitate ; and thus, with their whole army 
ready at any moment to be thrown into one vast hollow square, 
the Macedonians advanced in two lines against the enemy, Alex- 
ander himself leading on the right wing, and the renowned pha- 
lanx forming the centre, while Parmenio commanded on the left. 

Such was the general nature of the disposition which Alex- 
ander made of his army. But we have in Arrian the details of 
the position of each brigade and regiment ; and as we know 
that these details were taken from the journals of Macedonian 
generals, it is interesting to examine them, and to read the 
names and stations of King Alexander's generals and colonels 
in this the greatest of his battles. 

The eight troops of the royal horse-guards formed the right 
of Alexander's line. Their captains were Cleitus (whose regi- 
ment was on the extreme right, the post of peculiar danger), 

* See Clinton's " Fasti Hellenici." The battle was fought eleven days after 
an eclipse of the moon, which gives the means of fixing the precise date. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 



73 



Glaucias, Ariston, Sopolis, Heracleides, Demetrias, Meleager, 

and Hegeloehus. Philotas was general of the whole division. 
Then came the shield -bearing infantry: Nicanor was their 
general. Then came the phalanx, in six brigades. Comus's 
brigade was on the right, the nearest to the shield-bearers ; next 
to this stood the brigade of Perdiccas, then Meleager's, then 
Polysperchon's ; and then the brigade of Amynias, but which 
was now commanded by Simmias, as Amynias had been sent to 
Macedonia to levy recruits. Then came the infantry of the left 



ITHRSUUI 
CKYALKr 

\CAYJUJK 

Xmaumv 



Ss 



m IMFAHTM. 



ROYM 

t*0/)S£ CL'AMS 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OP ARBELA. 



wing, under the command of Craterns. Next to Craterus's in- 
fantry were placed the cavalry regiments of the allies, with 
Eriguius for their general. The Thessalian cavalry, commanded 
by Philippus, were next, and held the extreme left of the whole 
army. The whole left wing was intrusted to the command of 
Parmenio, who had round his person the Pharsalian troop of 
cavalry, which was the strongest and best amid all the Thessalian 
horse-regiments. 

The centre of the second line was occupied by a body of 
phalangite infantry, formed of companies, which were drafted for 
this purpose from each of the brigades of their phalanx. The 
officers in command of this corps were ordered to be ready to 
face about if the enemy should succeed in gaining the rear of 
the army. On the right of this reserve of infantry, in the sec- 
ond line, and behind the royal horse-guards, Alexander placed 



74 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

half the Agrian light-armed infantry under Attains, and with 
them Brison's body of Macedonian archers, and Oleander's regi- 
ment of foot. He also placed in this part of his army Menidas's 
squadron of cavalry, and Aretes's and Ariston's light horse. 
Menidas was ordered to watch if the enemy's cavalry tried to 
turn the flank, and if they did so, to charge them before they 
wheeled completely round, and so take them in flank themselves. 
A similar force was arranged on the left of the second line for 
the same purpose. The Thracian infantry of Sitalces were placed 
there, and Coeranus's regiment of the cavalry of the Greek allies, 
and Agathon's troops of the Odrysian irregular horse. The 
extreme left of the second line in this quarter was held by An- 
dromachus's cavalry. A division of Thracian infantry was left 
in guard of the camp. In advance of the right wing and centre 
were scattered a number of light-armed troops, of javelin-men 
and bowmen, with the intention of warding off the charge of 
the armed chariots.* 

Conspicuous by the brilliancy of his armor, and by the chosen 
band of officers who were round his person, Alexander took his 
own station, as his custom was, in the right wing, at the head 
of his cavalry ; and when all the arrangements for the battle 
were complete, and his generals were fully instructed how to 
act in each probable emergency, he began to lead his men tow- 
ards the enemy. 

It was ever his custom to expose his life freely in battle, and 
to emulate the personal prowess of his great ancestor, Achilles. 
Perhaps, in the bold enterprise of conquering Persia, it was pol- 
itic for Alexander to raise his army's daring to the utmost by 
the example of his own heroic valor ; and, in his subsequent 
campaigns, the love of the excitement, of " the rapture of the 
strife," may have made him, like Murat, continue from choice a 
custom which he commenced from duty. But he never suffered 
the ardor of the soldier to make him lose the coolness of the 
general ; and at Arbela, in particular, he showed that he could 
act up to his favorite Homeric maxim of being 

'A/Ji^uTspov, ficKJiXsvg t dyaObg tcparepog r alx^]Tr]g. 

Great reliance had been placed by the Persian king on the 
effects of the scythe - bearing chariots. It was designed to 

* Kleber's arrangement of his troops at the battle of Heliopolis, where, 
with ten thousand Europeans, he had to encounter eighty thousand Asiatics 
in an open plain, is worth comparing with Alexander's tactics at Arbela. See 
Thiers's " Histoire du Consulat," etc., vol. ii., livre v. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 75 

launch these against the Macedonian phalanx, and to follow 
them up by a heavy charge of cavalry, which it was hoped 
would find the ranks of the spearmen disordered by the rush of 
the chariots, and easily destroy this most formidable part of 
Alexander's force. In front, therefore, of the Persian centre, 
where Darius took his station, and which it was supposed the 
phalanx would attack, the ground had been carefully levelled 
and smoothed, so as to allow the chariots to charge over it with 
their full sweep and speed. As the Macedonian army ap- 
proached the Persian, Alexander found that the front of his 
whole line barely equalled the front of the Persian centre, so 
that he was outflanked on his right by the entire left wing of 
the enemy, and by their entire right wing on his left. His tac- 
tics were to assail some one point of the hostile army and gain 
a decisive advantage, while he refused, as far as possible, the 
encounter along the rest of the line. He therefore inclined his 
order of march to the right, so as to enable his right wing and 
centre to come into collision with the enemy on as favorable 
terms as possible, though the manoeuvre might in some respects 
compromise his left. 

The effect of this oblique movement was to bring the phalanx 
and his own wing nearly beyond the limits of the ground which 
the Persians had prepared for the operations of the chariots ; 
and Darius, fearing to lose the benefit of this arm against the 
most important parts of the Macedonian force, ordered the Scy- 
thian and Bactrian cavalry, who were drawn up on his extreme 
left, to charge round upon Alexander's right wing, and check its 
further lateral progress. Against these assailants Alexander 
sent from his second line Menidas's cavalry. As these proved 
too few to make head against the enemy, he ordered Ariston 
also from the second line with his light horse, and Cleander 
with his foot, in support of Menidas. The Bactrians and Scyth- 
ians now began to give way, but Darius reinforced them by 
the mass of Bactrian cavalry from his main line, and an obsti- 
nate cavalry fight now took place. The Bactrians and Scythians 
were numerous, and were better armed than the horsemen under 
Menidas and Ariston ; and the loss at first was heaviest on the 
Macedonian side. But still the European cavalry stood the 
charge of the Asiatics, and at last, by their superior discipline, 
and by acting in squadrons that supported each other, in- 
stead of fighting in a confused mass like the barbarians,* the 

* 'A\\a kcl\ log rag irporjfioXag avTuiv ic'vxpvTO 01 MctKtdoveg, Kal j3iq. tear 
i\a TrpovTn'iTTOVTeg i%u)Qovv tK Tijg ra&ujg. — Arrian, lib. jii., c. 13. 



76 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

Macedonians broke their adversaries, and drove them off the 
field. 

Darius now directed the scythe-armed chariots to be driven 
against Alexander's horse-guards and the phalanx ; and these 
formidable vehicles were accordingly sent rattling across the 
plain, against the Macedonian line. When we remember the 
alarm which the war -chariots of the Britons created among 
Caesar's legions, we shall not be prone to deride this arm of an- 
cient warfare as always useless. The object of the chariots was 
to create unsteadiness in the ranks against which they were 
driven, and squadrons of cavalry followed close upon them, to 
profit by such disorder. But the Asiatic chariots were rendered 
ineffective at Arbela by the light-armed troops whom Alexan- 
der had specially appointed for the service, and who, wounding 
the horses and drivers with their missile weapons, and running 
alongside so as to cut the traces or seize the reins, marred the 
intended charge ; and the few chariots that reached the phalanx 
passed harmlessly through the intervals which the spearmen 
opened for them, and were easily captured in the rear. 

A mass of the Asiatic cavalry was now, for the second time, 
collected against Alexander's extreme right, and moved round it, 
with the view of gaining the flank of his army. At the critical 
moment, Aretes, with his horsemen from Alexander's second 
line, dashed on the Persian squadrons when their own flanks 
were exposed by this evolution. While Alexander thus met 
and baffled all the flanking attacks of the enemy with troops 
brought up from his second line, he kept his own horse-guards 
and the rest of the front line of his wing fresh, and ready to 
take advantage of the first opportunity for striking a decisive 
blow. This soon came. A large body of horse, who were 

The best explanation of this may be found in Napoleon's account of the 
cavalry fights between the French and the Mamelukes : — " Two Mamelukes 
were able to make head against three Frenchmen, because they were better 
armed, better mounted, and better trained; they had two pair of pistols, a 
blunderbuss, a carbine, a helmet with a vizor, and a coat of mail ; they had 
several horses, and several attendants on foot. One hundred cuirassiers, 
however, were not afraid of one hundred Mamelukes ; three hundred could 
beat an equal number, and one thousand could easily put to the rout fifteen 
hundred, so great is the influence of tactics, order, and evolutions ! Leclerc 
and Lasalle presented their men to the Mamelukes in several lines. When 
the Arabs were on the point of overwhelming the first, the second came to its 
assistance on the right and left; the Mamelukes then halted and wheeled, in 
order to turn the wings of this new line; this moment was always seized upon 
to charge them, and they were uniformly broken." — Montholon's "History of 
the Captivity of Napoleon," iv., 70. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 77 

posted on the Persian left wing nearest to the centre, quitted 
their station, and rode off to help their comrades in the cavalry 
fight that still was going on at the extreme right of Alexander's 
wing against the detachments from his second line. This made 
a huge gap in the Persian array, and into this space Alexander 
instantly dashed with his guard ; and then pressing towards his 
left, he soon began to make havoc in the left flank of the Per- 
sian centre. The shield - bearing infantry now charged also 
among the reeling masses of the Asiatics ; and five of the bri- 
gades of the phalanx, with the irresistible might of their saris- 
sas, bore down the Greek mercenaries of Darius, and dug their 
way through the Persian centre. In the early part of the bat- 
tle, Darius had shown skill and energy ; and he now for 
some time encouraged his men, by voice and example, to keep 
firm. But the lances of Alexander's cavalry and the pikes of 
the phalanx now gleamed nearer and nearer to him. His 
charioteer was struck down by a javelin at his side ; and at last 
Darius's nerve failed him ; and, descending from his chariot, he 
mounted on a fleet horse and galloped from the plain, regardless 
of the state of the battle in other parts of the field, where mat- 
ters were going on much more favorably for his cause, and 
where his presence might have done much towards gaining a 
victory. 

Alexander's operations with his right and centre had exposed 
his left to an immensely preponderating force of the enemy. 
Parmenio kept out of action as long as possible ; but Maza3us, 
who commanded the Persian right wing, advanced against him, 
completely outflanked him, and pressed him severely with reit- 
erated charges by superior numbers. Seeing the distress of 
Parmenio's wing, Simmias, who commanded the sixth brigade 
of the phalanx, which was next to the left wing, did not ad- 
vance with the other brigades in the great charge upon the Per- 
sian centre, but kept back to cover Parmenio's troops on their 
right flank ; as otherwise they would have been completely sur- 
rounded and cut off from the rest of the Macedonian army. 
By so doing, Simmias had unavoidably opened a gap in the 
Macedonian left centre ; and a large column of Indian and Per- 
sian horse, from the Persian right centre, had galloped forward 
through this interval, and right through the troops of the Mace- 
donian second line. Instead of then wheeling round upon Par- 
menio, or upon the rear of Alexander's conquering wing, the 
Indian and Persian cavalry rode straight on to the Macedonian 
camp, overpowered the Thracians who were left in charge of it, 



"78 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

and began to plunder. This was stopped by the phalangite 
troops of the second line, who, after the enemy's horsemen had 
rushed by them, faced about, countermarched upon the camp, 
killed many of the Indians and Persians in the act of plunder- 
ing, and forced the rest to ride off again. Just at this crisis 
Alexander had been recalled from his pursuit of Darius by ti- 
dings of the distress of Parmenio, and of his inability to bear up 
any longer against the hot attacks of Mazaeus. Taking his horse- 
guards with him, Alexander rode towards the part of the field 
where his left wing was fighting ; but on his way thither he en- 
countered the Persian and Indian cavalry, on their return from 
his camp. 

These men now saw that their only chance of safety was to 
cut their way through ; and in one huge column they charged 
desperately upon the Macedonians. There was here a close 
hand-to-hand fight, which lasted some time, and sixty of the 
royal horse-guards fell, and three generals, who fought close to 
Alexander's side, were wounded. At length the Macedonian 
discipline and valor again prevailed, and a large number of the 
Persian and Indian horsemen were cut down ; some few only 
succeeded in breaking through and riding away. Relieved of 
these obstinate enemies, Alexander again formed his horse- 
guards, and led them towards Parmenio ; but by this time that 
general also was victorious. Probably the news of Darius's 
flight had reached Mazaeus, and had damped the ardor of the 
Persian right wing ; while the tidings of their comrades' suc- 
cess must have proportionally encouraged the Macedonian forces 
under Parmenio. His Thessalian cavalry particularly distin- 
guished themselves by their gallantry and persevering good 
conduct ; and by the time that Alexander had ridden up to Par- 
menio, the whole Persian army was in full flight from the field. 

It was of the deepest importance to Alexander to secure the 
person of Darius, and he now urged on the pursuit. The river 
Lycus was between the field of battle and the city of Arbela, 
whither the fugitives directed their course, and the passage of 
this river was even more destructive to the Persians than the 
swords and spears of the Macedonians had been in the engage- 
ment.* The narrow bridge was soon choked up by the flying 
thousands who rushed towards it, and vast numbers of the Per- 

* I purposely omit any statement of the loss in the battle. There is a pal- 
pable error of the transcribers in the numbers which we find in our present 
manuscripts of Arrian ; and Curtius is of no authority. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 79 

sians threw themselves, or were hurried by others, into the rapid 
stream, and perished in its waters. Darius had crossed it, and 
had ridden on through Arbela without halting. Alexander 
reached that city on the next day, and made himself master of 
all Darius's treasure and stores ; but the Persian king, unfortu- 
nately for himself, had fled too fast for his conqueror ; he had 
only escaped to perish by the treachery of his Bactrian satrap, 
Bessus. 

A few days after the battle Alexander entered Babylon, "the 
oldest seat of earthly empire " then in existence, as its acknowl- 
edged lord and master. There were yet some campaigns of his 
brief and bright career to be accomplished. Central Asia was 
yet to witness the march of his phalanx. He was yet to effect 
that conquest of Afghanistan in which England since has failed. 
His generalship, as well as his valor, was yet to be signalized 
on the banks of the Hydaspes and the field of Chillian wallah ; 
and he was yet to precede the Queen of England in annexing 
the Punjab to the dominions of a European sovereign. But 
the crisis of his career was reached ; the great object of his mis- 
sion was accomplished ; and the ancient Persian empire, which 
once menaced all the nations of the earth with subjection, was 
irreparably crushed when Alexander had won his crowning vic- 
tory at Arbela. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF ARBELA AND 
THE BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

b.c. 330. The Lacedaemonians endeavor to create a rising in 
Greece against the Macedonian power. They are defeated by 
Antipater, Alexander's viceroy ; and their king, Agis, falls in 
the battle. 

330 to 327. Alexander's campaigns in Upper Asia. "Hav- 
ing conquered Darius, Alexander pursued his way, encountering 
difficulties which would have appalled almost any other general, 
through Bactriana, and taking Bactra, or Zariaspa (now Balkh), 
the chief city of that province, where he spent the winter. Cross- 
ing the Oxus, he advanced in the following spring to Marakanda 
(Samarcand) to replace the loss of horses which he had sustained 
in crossing the Caucasus, to obtain supplies from the rich valley 
of Sogd (the Mahometan Paradise of Mader-al-Nahr), and to 
enforce the submission of Transoxiana. The northern limit of 
his march is probably represented by the modern Uskand, or 
Aderkand, a village on the Iaxartes, near the end of the Ferga- 



80 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

nali district. In Margiana he founded another Alexandria. Re- 
turning from the north, he led on his army in the hope of con- 
quering India, till at length, marching in a line apparently nearly 
parallel with the Kabul River, he arrived at the celebrated rock 
Aornos, the position of which must have been on the right bank 
of the Indus, at some distance from Attock ; and it may per- 
haps be represented by the modern Akora." — (Vaux.) 

327, 326. Alexander marches through Afghanistan to the 
Punjab. He defeats Porus. His troops refuse to march tow- 
ards the Ganges, and he commences the descent of the Indus. 
On his march he attacks and subdues several Indian tribes, among 
others the Malli ; in the storming of whose capital (Mooltan) he 
is severely wounded. He directs his admiral, Nearchus, to sail 
round from the Indus to the Persian Gulf, and leads the army 
back across Scinde and Beloochistan. 

324. Alexander returns to Babylon. " In the tenth year after 
he had crossed the Hellespont, Alexander, having won his vast 
dominion, entered Babylon ; and, resting from his career in that 
oldest seat of earthly empire, he steadily surveyed the mass of 
various nations which owned his sovereignty, and revolved in his 
mind the great work of breathing into this huge but inert body 
the living spirit of Greek civilization. In the bloom of youthful 
manhood, at the age of thirty-two, he paused from the fiery speed 
of his earlier course ; and for the first time gave the nations an 
opportunity of offering their homage before his throne. They 
came from all the extremities of the earth to propitiate his anger, 
to celebrate his greatness, or to solicit his protection. . . . His- 
tory may allow us to think that Alexander and a Roman ambas- 
sador did meet at Babylon ; that the greatest man of the ancient 
world saw and spoke with a citizen of that great nation, which 
was destined to succeed him in his appointed work, and to found 
a wider and still more enduring empire. They met, too, in Bab- 
ylon, almost beneath the shadow of the temple of Bel, perhaps 
the earliest monument ever raised by human pride and power, 
in a city stricken, as it were, by the word of God's heaviest judg- 
ment, as the symbol of greatness apart from and opposed to good- 
ness." — (Arnold.) 

323. Alexander dies at Babylon. On his death being known 
at Greece, the Athenians, and others of the southern states, take 
up arms to shake off the domination of Macedon. They are at 
first successful ; but the return of some of Alexander's veterans 
from Asia enables Antipater to prevail over them. 

317 to 289. Agathocles is tyrant of Syracuse, and carries on 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 81 

repeated wars with the Carthaginians, in the course of which 
(311) he invades Africa and reduces the Carthaginians to great 
distress. 

306. After a long series of wars with each other, and after all 
the heirs of Alexander had been murdered, his principal surviv- 
ing generals assume the title of king, each over the provinces 
which he has occupied. The four chief among them were An- 
tigonus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Seleucus. Antipater was 
now dead, but his son Cassander succeeded to his power in 
Macedonia and Greece. 

301. Seleucus and Lysimachus defeat Antigonus at Ipsus. 
Antigonus is killed in the battle. 

280. Seleucus, the last of Alexander's captains, is assassinated. 
Of all Alexander's successors, Seleucus had formed the most 
powerful empire. He had acquired all the provinces between 
Phrygia and the Indus. He extended his dominion in India 
beyond the limits reached by Alexander. Seleucus had some 
sparks of his great master's genius in promoting civilization and 
commerce, as well as in gaining victories. Under his succes- 
sors, the Seleucidse, this vast empire rapidly diminished ; Bac- 
tria became independent, and a separate dynasty of Greek kings 
ruled there in the year 125, when it was overthrown by the 
Scythian tribes. Parthia threw off its allegiance to the Seleuci- 
da3 in 250 b.c, and the powerful Parthian kingdom, which after- 
wards proved so formidable a foe to Rome, absorbed nearly all 
the provinces west of the Euphrates that had obeyed the first 
Seleucus. Before the battle of Ipsus, Mithridates, a Persian 
prince of the blood-royal of the Achaemenidse, had escaped to 
Pontus, and founded there the kingdom of that name. 

Besides the kingdom of Seleucus, which, when limited to 
Syria, Palestine, and parts of Asia Minor, long survived the 
most important kingdom formed by a general of Alexander, was 
that of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The throne of Macedonia was 
long and obstinately contended for by Cassander, Polysperchon, 
Lysimachus, Pyrrhus, Antigonus, and others ; but at last was 
secured by the dynasty of Antigonus Gonatas. The old repub- 
lics of Southern Greece suffered severely during these tumults, 
and the only Greek states that showed any strength and spirit 
were the cities of the Achaean League, the ^Etolians, and the isl- 
anders of Rhodes. 

290. Rome had now thoroughly subdued the Samnites and 
the Etruscans, and had gained numerous victories over the Cis- 
alpine Gauls. Wishing to confirm her dominion in Lower Italy, 



82 BATTLE OF ARBELA. 

she became entangled in a war with Pyrrhus, fourth king of 
Epirus, who was called over by the Tarentines to aid them. 
Pyrrhus was at first victorious, but in the year 275 was defeat- 
ed by the Roman legions in a pitched battle. He returned to 
Greece, remarking of Sicily, O'iav airo\ELiro}iEv Kapxn^oviotQ koX 
^(jjfialotg iraXalarpav, " Rome becomes mistress of all Italy from 
the Rubicon to the Straits of Messina." 

264. The first Punic war begins. Its primary cause was the 
desire of both the Romans and the Carthaginians to possess 
themselves of Sicily. The Romans form a fleet, and success- 
fully compete with the marine of Carthage. * During the latter 
half of the war the military genius of Hamilcar Barca sustains 
the Carthaginian cause in Sicily. At the end of twenty-four 
years the Carthaginians sue for peace, though their aggregate 
loss in ships and men had been less than that sustained by the 
Romans since the beginning of the war. Sicily becomes a Ro- 
man province. 

240 to 218. The Carthaginian mercenaries who had been 
brought back from Sicily to Africa mutiny against Carthage, 
and nearly succeed in destroying her. After a sanguinary and 
desperate struggle, Hamilcar Barca crushes them. During this 
season of weakness to Carthage, Rome takes from her the island 
of Sardinia. Hamilcar Barca forms the project of obtaining 
compensation by conquests in Spain, and thus enabling Car- 
thage to renew the struggle with Rome. He takes Hannibal 
(then a child) to Spain with him. He and (after his death) his 
brother win great part of Southern Spain to the Carthaginian 
interest. Hannibal obtains the command of the Carthaginian 
armies in Spain, 221 b.c, being then twenty-six years old. He 
attacks Saguntum, a city on the Ebro in alliance with Rome, 
which is the immediate pretext for the second Punic war. 

During this interval Rome had to sustain a storm from the 
north. The Cisalpine Gauls, in 226, formed an alliance with 
one of the fiercest tribes of their brethren north of the Alps, 
and began a furious war against the Romans, which lasted six 
years. The Romans gave them several severe defeats, and took 

* There is at this present moment [written in June, 1851] in the Great 
Exhibition at Hyde Park a model of a piratical galley of Labuan, part of the 
mast of which can be let down on an enemy, and form a bridge for boarders. 
It is worth while to compare this with the account in Polybius of the board- 
ing bridges which the Roman admiral, Duilius, affixed to the masts of his 
galleys, and by means of which he won his great victory over the Carthagin- 
ian fleet. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 83 

from them part of their territories near the Po. It was on this 
occasion that the Roman colonies of Cremona and Placentia 
were founded, the latter of which did such essential service to 
Rome in the second Punic war, by the resistance which it made 
to the army of Hasdrubal. A muster-roll was made in this war 
of the effective military force of the Romans themselves, and of 
those Italian states that were subject to them. The return showed 
a force of seven hundred thousand foot and seventy thousand 
horse. Polybius, who mentions this muster, remarks: 'E^>' ovg 
'Apvij3aQ iXarrovg t^wv htofxvpiior, eTrtfiaXev elg rr)v IraXiav. 
218. Hannibal crosses the Alps and invades Italy. 



84 



BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BATTLE OF THE METAURUS, B.C. 207. 

" Quid debeas, o Roma, Neronibus, 
Testis Metaurum flumen, et Hasdiubal 
Devictus, et pulcher fugatis 
Ille dies Latio tenebris. 

" Qui primus alma risit adorea ; 
Dirus per urbes Afer ut Italas, 
Ceu flamma per tsedas, vel Eurus 
Per Siculas equitavit undas." — Horatius, Od. iv., 4. 

"... The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march which deceived 
Hannibal, and defeated Hasdrubal, thereby accomplishing an achievement 
almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his return, to 
Hannibal, was the sight of Hasdrubal's head thrown into his camp. When 
Hannibal saw this, he exclaimed, with a sigh, that ' Rome would now be the 
mistress of the world.' To this victory of Nero's it might be owing that his 
imperial namesake reigned at all. But the infamy of the one has eclipsed 
the glory of the other. When the name of Nero is heard, who thinks of the 
consul ? But such are human things." — Byron. 

About midway between Rimini and Ancona a little river falls 
into the Adriatic, after traversing one of those districts of Italy 
in which a vain attempt has lately been made to revive, after long 
centuries of servitude and shame, the spirit of Italian nationality 
and the energy of free institutions. That stream is still called 
the Metauro ; and wakens by its name recollections of the reso- 
lute daring of ancient Rome, and of the slaughter that stained 
its current two thousand and sixty-three years ago, when the 
combined consular armies of Livius and Nero encountered and 
crushed near its banks the varied hosts which Hannibal's brother 
was leading from the Pyrenees, the Rhone, the Alps, and the Po, 
to aid the great Carthaginian in his stern struggle to annihilate 
the growing might of the Roman Republic, and make the Punic 
power supreme over all the nations of the world. 

The Roman historian, who termed that struggle the most mem- 
orable of all wars that ever were carried on,* wrote in no spirit 



♦Livy, lib. xxi., sec. 1. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 85 

of exaggeration. For it is not in ancient, but in modern histo- 
ry that parallels for its incidents and its heroes are to be found. 
The similitude between the contest which Rome maintained 
against Hannibal, and that which England was for many years 
engaged in against Napoleon, has not passed unobserved by re- 
cent historians. " Twice," says Arnold,* " has there been wit- 
nessed the struggle of the highest individual genius against the 
resources and institutions of a great nation; and in both cases 
the nation has been victorious. For seventeen years Hannibal 
strove against Rome ; for sixteen years Napoleon Bonaparte 
strove against England : the efforts of the first ended in Zama, 
those of the second in Waterloo." One point, however, of the 
similitude between the two wars has scarcely been adequately 
dwelt on. That is, the remarkable parallel between the Roman 
general who finally defeated the great Carthaginian, and the Eng- 
lish general who gave the last deadly overthrow to the French 
emperor. Scipio and Wellington both held for many years com- 
mands of high importance, but distant from the main theatres 
of warfare. The same country was the scene of the principal 
military career of each. It was in Spain that Scipio, like Wel- 
lington, successively encountered and overthrew nearly all the 
subordinate generals of the enemy, before being opposed to the 
chief champion and conqueror himself. Both Scipio and Wel- 
lington restored their countrymen's confidence in arms, when 
shaken by a series of reverses. And each of them closed a long 
and perilous war by a complete and overwhelming defeat of the 
chosen leader and the chosen veterans of the foe. 

Nor is the parallel between them limited to their military 
characters and exploits. Scipio, like Wellington, became an im- 
portant leader of the aristocratic party among his countrymen, 
and was exposed to the unmeasured invectives of the violent 
section of his political antagonists. When, early in the last 
reign, an infuriated mob assaulted the Duke of Wellington in 
the streets of the English capital on the anniversary of Waterloo, 
England was even more disgraced by that outrage than Rome 
was by the factious accusations which demagogues brought 
against Scipio, but which he proudly repelled on the day of 
trial by reminding the assembled people that it was the anni- 
versary of the battle of Zama. Happily, a wiser and a better 
spirit has now for years pervaded all classes of our community ; 
and we shall be spared the ignominy of having worked out to 

*Vol. iii., p. 62. See also Alison, passim. 



86 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

the end tlie parallel of national ingratitude. Scipio died a vol- 
untary exile from the malevolent turbulence of Rome. English- 
men of all ranks and politics have now long united in affection- 
ate admiration of our modern Scipio ; and even those who have 
most widely differed from the duke on legislative or administra- 
tive questions forget what they deem the political errors of that 
time-honored head, while they gratefully call to mind the laurels 
that have wreathed it. 

Scipio at Zama trampled in the dust the power of Carthage ; 
but that power had been already irreparably shattered in another 
field where neither Scipio nor Hannibal commanded. When the 
Metaurus witnessed the defeat and death of Hasdrubal, it wit- 
nessed the ruin of the scheme by which alone Carthage could 
hope to organize decisive success — the scheme of enveloping 
Rome at once from the north and the south of Italy by chosen 
armies, led by two sons of Hamilcar.* That battle was the de- 
termining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and 
Carthage, but between the two great families of the world, which 
then made Italy the arena of their oft-renewed contest for pre- 
eminence. 

The French historian Michelet, whose " Histoire Romaine " 
would have been invaluable if the general industry and accuracy 
of the writer had in any degree equalled his originality and brill- 
iancy, eloquently remarks : " It is not without reason that so 
universal and vivid a remembrance of the Punic wars has dwelt 
in the memories of men. They formed no mere struggle to de- 
termine the lot of two cities or two empires ; but it was a strife 
on the event of which depended the fate of two races of man- 
kind, whether the dominion of the world should belong to the 
Indo-Germanic or to the Semitic family of nations. Bear in 
mind that the first of these comprises, besides the Indians and 
the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Germans. In the 
other are ranked the Jews and the Arabs, the Phoenicians and 
the Carthaginians. On the one side is the genius of heroism, of 
art, and legislation ; on the other is the spirit of industry, of 
commerce, of navigation. The two opposite races have every- 
where come into contact, everywhere into hostility. In the 
primitive history of Persia and Chaldea, the heroes are perpetu- 
ally engaged in combat with their industrious and perfidious 
neighbors. The struggle is renewed between the Phoenicians 
and the Greeks on every coast of the Mediterranean. The Greek 

* See Arnold, vol. Hi. , p. 387. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 87 

supplants the Phoenician in all his factories, all his colonies in 
the East ; soon will the Roman come, and do likewise in the 
West. Alexander did far more against Tyre than Salmanasar or 
Nabuchodonosor had done. Not content with crushing her, he 
took care that she never should revive ; for he founded Alexan- 
dria as her substitute, and changed forever the track of com- 
merce of the world. There remained Carthage — the great 
Carthage, and her mighty empire — mighty in a far different de- 
gree than Phoenicia's had been. Rome annihilated it. Then 
occurred that which has no parallel in history : an entire civil- 
ization perished at one blow — vanished, like a falling star. The 
4 Periplus' of Hanno, a few coins, a score of lines in Plautus, and, 
lo, all that remains of the Carthaginian world ! 

" Many generations must needs pass away before the struggle 
between the two races could be renewed ; and the Arabs, that 
formidable rear-guard of the Semitic world, dashed forth from 
their deserts. The conflict between the two races then became 
the conflict of two religions. Fortunate was it that those daring 
Saracenic cavaliers encountered in the East the impregnable walls 
of Constantinople, in the West the chivalrous valor of Charles 
Martel and the sword of the Cid. The crusades were the nat- 
ural reprisals for the Arab invasions, and form the last epoch of 
that great struggle between the two principal families of the 
human race." 

It is difficult, amid the glimmering light supplied by the allu- 
sions of the classical writers, to gain a full idea of the character 
and institutions of Rome's great rival. But we can perceive how 
inferior Carthage was to her competitor in military resources ; 
and how far less fitted than Rome she was to become the founder 
of centralized and centralizing dominion that should endure for 
centuries, and fuse into imperial unity the narrow nationalities 
of the ancient races that dwelt around and near the shores of 
the Mediterranean Sea. 

Carthage was originally neither the most ancient nor the most 
powerful of the numerous colonies which the Phoenicians planted 
on the coast of Northern Africa. But her advantageous position, 
the excellence of her constitution (of which, though ill-informed 
as to its details, we know that it commanded the admiration of 
Aristotle), and the commercial and political energy of her citi- 
zens gave her the ascendency over Hippo, Utica, Leptis, and her 
other sister Phoenician cities in those regions ; and she finally 
reduced them to a condition of dependency, similar to that 
which the subject allies of Athens occupied relatively to that 



88 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

once imperial city. When Tyre and Sidon and the other cities 
of Phoenicia itself sank from independent republics into mere 
vassal states of the great Asiatic monarchies, and obeyed by 
turns a Babylonian, a Persian, and a Macedonian master, their 
power and their traffic rapidly declined ; and Carthage succeeded 
to the important maritime and commercial character which they 
had previously maintained. The Carthaginians did not seek to 
compete with the Greeks on the northeastern shores of the Med- 
iterranean, or in the three inland seas which are connected with 
it ; but they maintained an active intercourse with the Phoeni- 
cians, and through them with Lower and Central Asia; and they, 
and they alone, after the decline and fall of Tyre, navigated the 
waters of the Atlantic. They had the monopoly of all the com- 
merce of the world that was carried on beyond the Straits of 
Gibraltar. We have yet extant (in a Greek translation) the nar- 
rative of the voyage of Hanno, one of their admirals, along the 
western coast of Africa as far as Sierra Leone. And in the 
Latin poem of Festus Avienus, frequent references are made to the 
records of the voyages of another celebrated Carthaginian admi- 
ral, Himilco, who had explored the northwestern coast of Europe. 
Onr own islands are mentioned by Himilco as the lands of the 
Hiberni and the Albioni. It is indeed certain that the Cartha- 
ginians frequented the Cornish coast (as the Phoenicians had 
done before them) for the purpose of procuring tin ; and there 
is every reason to believe that they sailed as far as the coasts of 
the Baltic for amber. When it is remembered that the mariner's 
compass was unknown in those ages, the boldness and skill of 
the seamen of Carthage, and the enterprise of her merchants, 
may be paralleled with any achievements that the history of 
modern navigation and commerce can supply. 

In their Atlantic voyages along the African shores, the Cartha- 
ginians followed the double object of traffic and colonization. 
The numerous settlements that were planted by them along the 
coast from Morocco to Senegal provided for the needy members 
of the constantly increasing population of a great commercial 
capital ; and also strengthened the influence which Carthage ex- 
ercised among the tribes of the African coast. Besides her 
fleets, her caravans gave her a large and lucrative trade with the 
native Africans ; nor must we limit our belief of the extent of 
the Carthaginian trade with the tribes of Central and Western 
Africa by the narrowness of the commercial intercourse which 
civilized nations of modern times have been able to create in 
those regions. 



BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 89 

Although essentially a mercantile and seafaring people, the 
Carthaginians by no means neglected agriculture. On the con- 
trary, the whole of their territory was cultivated like a garden. 
The fertility of the soil repaid the skill and toil bestowed on it ; 
and every invader, from Agathocles to Scipio iEmilianus, was 
struck with admiration at the rich pasture-lands carefully irri- 
gated, the abundant harvests, the luxuriant vineyards, the plan- 
tations of fig and olive trees, the thriving villages, the populous 
towns, and the splendid villas of the wealthy Carthaginians, 
through which his march lay, as long as he was on Carthaginian 
ground. 

The Carthaginians abandoned the ^Egean and the Pontus to 
the Greeks, but they were by no means disposed to relinquish to 
those rivals the commerce and the dominion of the coasts of the 
Mediterranean westward of Italy. For centuries the Carthagin- 
ians strove to make themselves masters of the islands that lie 
between Italy and Spain. They acquired the Balearic Islands, 
where the principal harbor, Port Mahon, still bears the name 
of the Carthaginian admiral. They succeeded in reducing the 
greater part of Sardinia ; but Sicily could never be brought into 
their power. They repeatedly invaded that island, and nearly 
overran it ; but the resistance which was opposed to them by 
the Syracusans, under Gelon, Dionysius, Timoleon, and Agatho- 
cles, preserved the island from becoming Punic, though many 
of its cities remained under the Carthaginian rule, until Rome 
finally settled the question to whom Sicily was to belong by con- 
quering it for herself. 

With so many elements of success — with almost unbounded 
wealth, with commercial and maritime activity, with a fertile 
territory, with a capital city of almost impregnable strength, with 
a constitution that insured for centuries the blessings of social 
order, with an aristocracy singularly fertile in men of the high- 
est genius — Carthage yet failed signally and calamitously in her 
contest for power with Rome. One of the immediate causes of 
this may seem to have been the want of firmness among her 
citizens, which made them terminate the first Punic war by beg- 
ging peace, sooner than endure any longer the hardships and 
burdens caused by a state of warfare, although their antagonists 
had suffered far more severely than themselves. Another cause 
was the spirit of faction among their leading men, which pre- 
vented Hannibal in the second war from being properly rein- 
forced and supported. But there were also more general causes 
why Carthage proved inferior to Rome. These were her posi- 



90 BATTLE OF THE METAURU8. 

tion relatively to the mass of the inhabitants of the country 
which she ruled, and her habit of trusting to mercenary armies 
in her wars. 

Our clearest information as to the different races of men in 
and about Carthage is derived from Diodorus Siculus.* That 
historian enumerates four different races : first, he mentions the 
Phoenicians who dwelt in Carthage ; next, he speaks of the Liby- 
Phoenicians — these, he tells us, dwelt in many of the maritime 
cities, and were connected by intermarriages with the Phoeni- 
cians, which was the cause of their compound name ; thirdly, he 
mentions the Libyans, the bulk and the most ancient part of the 
population, hating the Carthaginians intensely on account of 
the oppressiveness of their domination ; lastly, he names the 
Numidians, the nomad tribes of the frontier. 

It is evident, from this description, that the native Libyans 
were a subject class, without franchise or political rights ; and, 
accordingly, we find no instance specified in history of a 
Libyan holding political office or military command. The 
half-castes, the Liby-Phcenicians, seem to have been some- 
times sent out as colonists ;f but it may be inferred, from 
what Diodorus says of their residence, that they had not 
the right of the citizenship of Carthage ; and only a solitary 
case occurs of one of this race being intrusted with author- 
ity, and that, too, not emanating from the home government. 
This is the instance of the officer sent by Hannibal to Sicily, 
after the fall of Syracuse ; whom Polybius \ calls Myttinus 
the Libyan, but whom, from the fuller account in Livy, we 
find to "have been a Liby-Phoenician ; § and it is expressly 
mentioned what indignation was felt by the Carthaginian 
commanders in the island that this half-caste should control 
their operations. 

With respect to the composition of their armies, it is observ- 
able that, though thirsting for extended empire, and though 
some of the leading men became generals of the highest 
order, the Carthaginians, as a people, were anything but per- 
sonally warlike. As long as they could hire mercenaries to 
fight for them, they had little appetite for the irksome train- 
ing, and they grudged the loss of valuable time which military 
service would have entailed on themselves. 

As Michelet remarks, " The life of an industrious merchant, 

♦Vol. ii., p. 447, Wesseling's ed. fSee the "Periplus " of Hanno. 

% Lib. ix., 22. § Lib. xxv., 40. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 91 

of a Carthaginian, was too precious to be risked, as long as it 
was possible to substitute advantageously for it that of a bar- 
barian from Spain or Gaul. Carthage knew, and could tell to 
a drachma, what the life of a man of each nation came to. A 
Greek was worth more than a Campanian, a Campanian worth 
more than a Gaul or a Spaniard. When once this tariff of 
blood was correctly made out, Carthage began a war as a mer- 
cantile speculation. She tried to make conquests in the hope 
of getting new mines to work, or to open fresh markets for her 
exports. In one venture she could afford to spend fifty thou- 
sand mercenaries ; in another, rather more. If the returns were 
good, there was no regret felt for the capital that had been 
lavished in the investment ; more money got more men, and all 
went on well." * 

Armies composed of foreign mercenaries have, in all ages, 
been as formidable to their employers as to the enemy against 
whom they were directed. We know of one occasion (between 
the first and second Punic wars) when Carthage was brought to 
the very brink of destruction by a revolt of her foreign troops. 
Other mutinies of the same kind must from time to time have 
occurred. Probably one of these was the cause of the compar- 
ative weakness of Carthage at the time of the Athenian expedi- 
tion against Syracuse ; so different from the energy with which 
she attacked Gelon half a century earlier, and Dionysius half 
a century later. And even when we consider her armies with 
reference only to their efficiency in warfare, we perceive at once 
the inferiority of such bands of condottieri, brought together 
without any common bond of origin, tactics, or cause, to the 
legions of Rome, which at the time of the Punic wars were 
raised from the very flower of a hardy agricultural population, 
trained in the strictest discipline, habituated to victory, and ani- 
mated by the most resolute patriotism. And this shows also 
the transcendency of the genius of Hannibal, which could form 
such discordant materials into a compact organized force, and 
inspire them with the spirit of patient discipline and loyalty to 
their chief ; so that they were true to him in his adverse as well 
as in his prosperous fortunes ; and throughout the checkered 
series of his campaigns no panic rout ever disgraced a division 
under his command ; no mutiny, or even attempt at mutiny, was 
ever known in his camp ; and, finally, after fifteen years of Ital- 
ian warfare, his men followed their old leader to Zama, " with 

* " Histoire Romaine," vol. ii., p. 40. 



92 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

no fear and little hope ;" * and there, on that disastrous field, 
stood firm around him, his Old Guard, till Scipio's Numidian 
allies came up on their flank ; when at last, surrounded and 
overpowered, the veteran battalions sealed their devotion to 
their general with their blood. 

" But if Hannibal's genius may be likened to the Homeric 
god, who, in his hatred to the Trojans, rises from the deep to 
rally the fainting Greeks, and to lead them against the enemy, 
so the calm courage with which Hector met his more than hu- 
man adversary in his country's cause is no unworthy image of 
the unyielding magnanimity displayed by the aristocracy of 
Rome. As Hannibal utterly eclipses Carthage, so, on the con- 
trary, Fabius, Marcellus, Claudius Nero, even Scipio himself, 
are as nothing when compared to the spirit, and wisdom, and 
power of Rome. The Senate, which voted its thanks to its 
political enemy, Varro, after his disastrous defeat, ' because he 
had not despaired of the commonwealth,' and which disdained 
either to solicit, or to reprove, or to threaten, or in any way to 
notice the twelve colonies which had refused their customary 
supplies of men for the army, is far more to be honored than 
the conqueror of Zama. This we should the more carefully 
bear in mind, because our tendency is to admire individual 
greatness far more than national ; and, as no single Roman will 
bear comparison to Hannibal, we are apt to murmur at the event 
of the contest, and to think that the victory was awarded to the 
least worthy of the combatants. On the contrary, never was 
the wisdom of God's providence more manifest than in the issue 
of the struggle between Rome and Carthage. It was clearly for 
the good of mankind that Hannibal should be conquered : his 
triumph would have stopped the progress of the world. For 
great men can only act permanently by forming great nations ; 
and no one man, even though it were Hannibal himself, can in 
one generation effect such a work. But where the nation has 
been merely enkindled for a while by a great man's spirit, the 
light passes away with him who communicated it ; and the na- 
tion, when he is gone, is like a dead body, to which magic power 
had, for a moment, given unnatural life : when the charm has 
ceased, the body is cold and stiff as before. He who grieves 
over the battle of Zama should carry on his thoughts to a period 
thirty years later, when Hannibal must, in the course of nature, 

* "We advanced to Waterloo as the Greeks did to Thermopylae; all of 
us without fear, and most of us without hope." — Speech of General Foy. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 93 

have been dead, and consider how the isolated Phoenician city 
of Carthage was fitted to receive and to consolidate the civiliza- 
tion of Greece, or by its laws and institutions to bind together 
barbarians of every race and language into an organized empire, 
and prepare them for becoming, when that empire was dis- 
solved, the free members of the commonwealth of Christian 
Europe." * 

It was in the spring of 207 B.C. that Hasdrubal, after skil- 
fully disentangling himself from the Roman forces in Spain, 
and after a march, conducted with great judgment and little 
loss, through the interior of Gaul and the passes of the Alps, 
appeared in the country that now is the north of Lombardy, at 
the head of troops which he had partly brought out of Spain, 
and partly levied among the Gauls and Ligurians on his way. 
At this time Hannibal, with his unconquered, and seemingly 
unconquerable, army, had been eleven years in Italy, executing 
with strenuous ferocity the vow of hatred to Rome which had 
been sworn by him while yet a child at the bidding of his father, 
Hamilcar ; who, as he boasted, had trained up his three sons, 
Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Mago, like three lion's whelps, to prey 
upon the Romans. But Hannibal's latter campaigns had not 
been signalized by any such great victories as marked the first 
years of his invasion of Italy. The stern spirit of Roman reso- 
lution, ever highest in disaster and danger, had neither bent nor 
despaired beneath the merciless blows which " the dire African " 
dealt her in rapid succession at Trebia, at Thrasymene, and at 
Canna3. Her population was thinned by repeated slaughter in 
the field ; poverty and actual scarcity wore down the survivors, 
through the fearful ravages which Hannibal's cavalry spread 
through their corn-fields, their pasture-lands, and their vineyards ; 
many of her allies went over to the invader's side ; and new 
clouds of foreign war threatened her from Macedonia and Gaul. 
But Rome receded not. Rich and poor among her citizens vied 
with each other in devotion to their country. The wealthy 
placed their stores, and all placed their lives, at the state's dis- 
posal. And though Hannibal could not be driven out of Italy, 
though every year brought its sufferings and sacrifices, Rome 
felt that her constancy had not been exerted in vain. If she 
was weakened by the continual strife, so was Hannibal also ; and 

* Arnold, vol. iii., p. 61. The above is one of the numerous bursts of elo- 
quence that adorn Arnold's third volume, and cause such deep regret that 
that volume should have been the last, and its great and good author have 
been cut off with his work thus incomplete, 



94 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

it was clear that the unaided resources of his army were unequal 
to the task of her destruction. The single deer-hound could 
not pull down the quarry which he had so furiously assailed. 
Rome not only stood fiercely at bay, but had pressed back and 
gored her antagonist, that still, however, watched her in act to 
spring. She was weary, and bleeding at every pore ; and there 
seemed to be little hope of her escape, if the other hound of old 
Hamilcar's race should come up in time to aid his brother in 
the death-grapple. 

Hasdrubal had commanded the Carthaginian armies in Spain 
for some time, with varying but generally unpropitious fortune. 
He had not the full authority over the Punic forces in that coun- 
try which his brother and his father had previously exercised. 
The faction at Carthage, which was at feud with his family, 
succeeded in fettering and interfering with his power ; and other 
generals were from time to time sent into Spain, whose errors 
and misconduct caused the reverses that Hasdrubal met with. 
This is expressly attested by the Greek historian Polybius, who 
was the intimate friend of the younger Africanus, and drew his 
information respecting the second Punic war from the best pos- 
sible authorities. Livy gives a long narrative of campaigns be- 
tween the Roman commanders in Spain and Hasdrubal, which 
is so palpably deformed by fictions and exaggerations as to be 
hardly deserving of attention.* 

It is clear that in the year 208 b.o., at least, Hasdrubal out- 
manoeuvred Publius Scipio, who held the command of the Roman 
forces in Spain ; and whose object was to prevent him from 
passing the Pyrenees and marching upon Italy. Scipio expected 
that Hasdrubal would attempt the nearest route, along the coast 
of the Mediterranean ; and he therefore carefully fortified and 
guarded the passes of the eastern Pyrenees. But Hasdrubal 
passed these mountains near their western extremity ; and then, 
with a considerable force of Spanish infantry, with a small num- 
ber of African troops, with some elephants and much treasure, he 
marched, not directly towards the coast of the Mediterranean, but 
in a northeastern line towards the centre of Gaul. He halted for 
the winter in the territory of the Arverni, the modern Auvergne ; 
and conciliated or purchased the good-will of the Gauls in that 
region so far that he not only found friendly winter-quarters 
among them, but great numbers of them enlisted under him, 

* See the excellent criticisms of Sir Walter Raleigh on this, in his " His- 
torie of the World," book v., chap. III. , sec. 11. 



BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 95 

and on the approach of spring marched with him to invade 

Ital y- 

By thus entering- Gaul at the southwest, and avoiding its 
southern maritime districts, Hasdrubal kept the Romans in com- 
plete ignorance of his precise operations and movements in that 
country. All that they knew was that Hasdrubal had baffled 
Scipio's attempts to keep him in Spain ; that he had crossed the 
Pyrenees with soldiers, elephants, and money, and that he was 
raising fresh forces among the Gauls. The spring was sure to 
bring him into Italy ; and then would come the real tempest of 
the war, when from the north and from the south the two Cartha- 
ginian armies, each under a son of the Thunderbolt,* were to 
gather together around the seven hills of Rome. 

In this emergency the Romans looked among themselves 
earnestly and anxiously for leaders fit to meet the perils of the 
coming campaign. 

The senate recommended the people to elect as one of their 
consuls Caius Claudius Nero, a patrician of one of the families 
of the great Claudian house. Nero had served during the pre- 
ceding years of the war, both against Hannibal in Italy and 
against Hasdrubal in Spain ; but it is remarkable that the his- 
tories which we possess record no successes as having been 
achieved by him either before or after his great campaign of the 
Metaurus. It proves much for the sagacity of the leading men 
of the senate that they recognized in Nero the energy and spirit 
which were required at this crisis, and it is equally creditable 
to the patriotism of the people that they followed the advice of 
the senate by electing a general who had no showy exploits to 
recommend him to their choice. 

It was a matter of greater difficulty to find a second consul. 
The laws required that one consul should be a plebeian ; and 
the plebeian nobility had been fearfully thinned by the events 
of the war. While the senators anxiously deliberated among 
themselves what fit colleague for Nero could be nominated 
at the coming comitia, and sorrowfully recalled the names of 
Marcellus, Gracchus, and other plebeian generals who were no 
more, one taciturn and moody old man sat in sullen apathy 
among the conscript fathers. This was Marcus Livius, who 
had been consul in the year before the beginning of this war, 
and had then gained a victory over the Illyrians. After his 

* Hamilcar was surnamed Barca, which means the Thunderbolt. Sultan 
Bajazet had the similar surname of Yilderim. 



96 BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 

consulship he had been impeached before the people on a 
charge of peculation and unfair division of the spoils among his 
soldiers. The verdict was unjustly given against him ; and the 
sense of this wrong, and of the indignity thus put upon him, 
had rankled unceasingly in the bosom of Livius, so that for 
eight years after his trial he had lived in seclusion at his coun- 
try seat, taking no part in any affairs of state. Latterly the 
censors had compelled him to come to Rome and resume his 
place in the senate, where he used to sit gloomily apart, giving 
only a silent vote. At last an unjust accusation against one of 
his near kinsmen made him break silence ; and he harangued 
the house in words of weight and sense, which drew attention 
to him, and taught the senators that a strong spirit dwelt be- 
neath that unimposing exterior. Now, while they were debat- 
ing on what noble of a plebeian house was fit to assume the 
perilous honors of the consulate, some of the elder of them 
looked on Marcus Livius, and remembered that in the very last 
triumph which had been celebrated in the streets of Rome this 
grim old man had sat in the car of victory ; and that he had 
offered the last grand thanksgiving sacrifice for the success of 
the Roman arms that had bled before Capitoline Jove. There 
had been no triumphs since Hannibal came into Italy.* The 
Illyrian campaign of Livius was the last that had been so hon- 
ored ; perhaps it might be destined for him now to renew 
the long-interrupted series. The senators resolved that Livius 
should be put in nomination as consul with Nero ; the people 
were willing to elect him ; the only opposition came from him- 
self. He taunted them with their inconsistency in honoring a 
man they had convicted of a base crime. " If I am innocent," 
said he, " why did you place such a stain on me ? If I am 
guilty, why am I more fit for a second consulship than I was 
for my first one ?" The other senators remonstrated with him, 
urging the example of the great Camillus, who, after an unjust 
condemnation on a similar charge, both served and saved his 
country. At last Livius ceased to object ; and Caius Claudius 
Nero and Marcus Livius were chosen consuls of Rome. 

A quarrel had long existed between the two consuls, and the 
senators strove to effect a reconciliation between them before 
the campaign. ' Here again Livius for a long time obstinately 
resisted the wish of his fellow-senators. He said it was best 



* Marcellus had been only allowed an ovation for the conquest of Syra- 
cuse. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 97 

for the state that he and Nero should continue to hate one an- 
other. Each would do his duty better when he knew that he 
was watched by an enemy in the person of his own colleague. 
At last the entreaties of the senators prevailed, and Livius con- 
sented to forego the feud, and to co-operate with Nero in pre- 
paring for the coming struggle. 

As soon as the winter snows were thawed, Hasdrubal com- 
menced his march from Auvergne to the Alps. He experienced 
none of the difficulties which his brother had met with from the 
mountain tribes. Hannibal's army had been the first body of 
regular troops that had ever traversed the regions ; and, as wild 
animals assail a traveller, the natives rose against it instinctively, 
in imagined defence of their own habitations, which they sup- 
posed to be the objects of Carthaginian ambition. But the 
fame of the war with which Italy had now been convulsed for 
eleven years had penetrated into the Alpine passes ; and the 
mountaineers understood that a mighty city, southward of the 
Alps, was to be attacked by the troops whom they saw march- 
ing among them. They not only opposed no resistance to the 
passage of Hasdrubal, but many of them, out of the love of en- 
terprise and plunder, or allured by the high pay that he offered, 
took service with him ; and thus he advanced upon Italy with 
an army that gathered strength at every league. It is said, 
also, that some of the most important engineering works which 
Hannibal had constructed were found by Hasdrubal still in ex- 
istence, and materially favored the speed of his advance. He 
thus emerged into Italy from the Alpine valleys much sooner 
than had been anticipated. Many warriors of the Ligurian 
tribes joined him; and, crossing the river Po, he marched 
down its southern bank to the city of Placentia, which he 
wished to secure as a base for future operations. Placentia 
resisted him as bravely as it had resisted Hannibal eleven years 
before ; and for some time Hasdrubal was occupied with a 
fruitless siege before its walls. 

Six armies were levied for the defence of Italy when the long- 
dreaded approach of Hasdrubal was announced. Seventy thou- 
sand Romans served in the fifteen legions of which, with an 
equal number of Italian allies, those armies and the garrisons 
were composed. Upwards of thirty thousand more Romans were 
serving in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. The whole number of 
Roman citizens of an age tit for military duty scarcely exceeded 
a hundred and thirty thousand. The census taken before the 
war had shown a total of two hundred and seventy thousand, 



98 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

which had been diminished by more than half during twelve 
years. These numbers are fearfully emphatic of the extremity 
to which Rome was reduced, and of her gigantic efforts in that 
great agony of her fate. Not merely men, but money and 
military stores were drained to the utmost ; and if the armies 
of that year should be swept off by a repetition of the slaugh- 
ters of Thrasymene and Cannre, all felt that Rome would cease 
to exist. Even if the campaign were to be marked by no de- 
cisive success on either side, her ruin seemed certain. In 
South Italy, Hannibal had either detached Rome's allies from 
her, or had impoverished them by the ravages of his army. If 
Hasdrubal could have done the same in Upper Italy, if Etruria, 
Umbria, and Northern Latium had either revolted or been laid 
waste, Rome must have sunk beneath sheer starvation ; for the 
hostile or desolated territory would have yielded no supplies of 
corn for her population ; and money, to purchase it from 
abroad, there was none. Instant victory was a matter of life 
and death. Three of her six armies were ordered to the north, 
but the first of these was required to overawe the disaffected 
Etruscans. The second army of the north was pushed forward, 
under Porcius, the praetor, to meet and keep in check the ad- 
vanced troops of Hasdrubal ; while the third, the grand army 
of the north, which was to be under the immediate command of 
the consul Livius, who had the chief command in all North 
Italy, advanced more slowly in its support. There were sim- 
ilarly three armies in the south, under the orders of the other 
consul, Claudius Nero. 

The lot had decided that Livius was to be opposed to Has- 
drubal, and that Nero should face Hannibal. And " when all 
was ordered as themselves thought best, the two consuls went 
forth of the city, each his several way. The people of Rome 
were now quite otherwise affected than they had been when L. 
^Emilius Paulus and C. Terentius Varro were sent against Hanni- 
bal. They did no longer take upon them to direct their generals, 
or bid them despatch, and win the victory betimes ; but rather 
they stood in fear lest all diligence, wisdom, and valor should 
prove too little. For since few years had passed wherein some 
one of their generals had not been slain, and since it was mani- 
fest that if either of these present consuls were defeated or put 
to the worst, the two Carthaginians would forthwith join and 
make short work with the other, it seemed a greater happiness 
than could be expected that each of them should return home 
victor, and come off with honor from such mighty opposition 



BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 99 

as he was like to find. With extreme difficulty had Rome held 
up her head ever since the battle of Cannae ; though it were so 
that Hannibal alone, with little help from Carthage, had contin- 
ued the war in Italy. But there was now arrived another son 
of Amilcar ; and one that, in his present expedition, had seemed 
a man of more sufficiency than Hannibal himself. For, whereas 
in that long and dangerous march through barbarous nations, 
over great rivers and mountains that were thought unpassable, 
Hannibal had lost a great part of his army, this Asdrubal, in 
the same places, had multiplied his numbers ; and, gathering the 
people that he found in the way, descended from the Alps like 
a rolling snow-ball, far greater than he came over the Pyrenees 
at his first setting out of Spain. These considerations, and the 
like, of which fear presented many unto them, caused the people 
of Rome to wait upon their consuls out of the town, like a pen- 
sive train of mourners ; thinking upon Marcellus and Crispinus, 
upon whom, in the like sort, they had given attendance the last 
year, but saw neither of them return alive from a less dangerous 
war. Particularly old Q. Fabius gave his accustomed advice to 
M. Livius, that he should abstain from giving or taking battle, 
until he well understood the enemies' condition. But the con- 
sul made him a froward answer, and said that he would fight 
the very first day, for that he thought it long till he should 
either recover his honor by victory, or, by seeing the overthrow 
of his own unjust citizens, satisfy himself with the joy of a 
great, though not an honest, revenge. But his meaning was 
better than his words." * 

Hannibal at this period occupied with his veteran but much- 
reduced forces the extreme south of Italy. It had not been ex- 
pected either by friend or foe that Hasdrubal would effect his 
passage of the Alps so early in the year as actually occurred. 
And even when Hannibal learned that his brother was in Italy, 
and had advanced as far as Placentia, he was obliged to pause 
for further intelligence, before he himself commenced active 
operations, as he could not tell whether his brother might not 
be invited into Etruria, to aid the party there that was disaffect- 
ed to Rome, or whether he would march down by the Adriatic 
Sea. Hannibal led his troops out of their winter-quarters in 
Bruttium, and marched northward as far as Canusium. Nero 
had his headquarters near Venusia, with an army which he had 
increased to forty thousand foot and two thousand five hundred 

* Sir Walter Raleigh. 



100 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

horse, by incorporating under his own command some of the 
legions which had been intended to act under other generals in 
the south. There was another Roman army twenty thousand 
strong, south of Hannibal, at Tarentum. The strength of that 
city secured this Roman force from any attack by Hannibal, 
and it was a serious matter to march northward and leave it in 
his rear, free to act against all his depots and allies in the friend- 
ly part of Italy, which for the last two or three campaigns had 
served him for a base of his operations. Moreover, Nero's army 
was so strong that Hannibal could not concentrate troops enough 
to assume the offensive against it without weakening his gar- 
risons, and relinquishing, at least for a time, his grasp upon the 
southern provinces. To do this before he was certainly informed 
of his brother's operations would have been a useless sacrifice ; as 
Nero could retreat before him upon the other Roman armies near 
the capital, and Hannibal knew by experience that a mere advance 
of his army upon the walls of Rome would have no effect on the 
fortunes of the war. In the hope, probably, of inducing Nero to 
follow him, and of gaining an opportunity of out-manoeuvring the 
Roman consul and attacking him on his march, Hannibal moved 
into Lucania, and then back into Apulia ; he again marched 
down into Bruttium, and strengthened his army by a levy of 
recruits in that district. Nero followed him, but gave him no 
chance of assailing him at a disadvantage. Some partial en- 
counters seem to have taken place ; but the consul could not 
prevent Hannibal's junction with his Bruttian levies, nor could 
Hannibal gain an opportunity of surprising and crushing the 
consul.* Hannibal returned to his former headquarters at 

* The annalists whom Livy copied spoke of Nero's gaining repeated vic- 
tories over Hannibal, and killing and taking his men by tens of thousands. 
The falsehood of all this is self-evident. If Nero could thus always beat 
Hannibal, the Romans would not have been in such an agony of dread 
about Hasdrubal as all writers describe. Indeed, we have the express tes- 
timony of Polybius that such statements as we read in Livy of Marcellus, 
Nero, and others gaining victories over Hannibal in Italy must be all fab- 
rications of Roman vanity. Polybius states (lib. xv., sec. 16) that Hanni- 
bal was never defeated before the battle of Zama ; and in another passage 
(book ix., chap. 3 ) he mentions that after the defeats which Hannibal 
inflicted on the Romans in the early years of the war, they no longer 
dared face his army in a pitched battle on a fair field, and yet they reso- 
lutely maintained the war. He rightly explains this by referring to the 
superiority of Hannibal's cavalry, the arm which gained him all his vic- 
tories. By keeping within fortified lines, or close to the sides of the moun- 
tains when Hannibal approached them, the Romans rendered his cavalry 
ineffective ; and a glance at the geography of Italy w.ll show how an army 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 



101 



Canusium, and halted there in expectation of further tidings of 
his brother's movements. Nero also resumed his former posi- 
tion in observation of the Carthaginian army. 

Meanwhile, Hasdrubal had raised the siege of Placentia, and 
was advancing towards Ariininuin on the Adriatic, and driving 
before him the Roman army under Porcius. Nor when the con- 
sul Livius had come up, and united the second and third armies 
of the north, could he make head against the invaders. The 
Romans still fell back before Hasdrubal, beyond Ariininum, be- 




yond the Metaurus, and as far as the little town of Sena, to the 
southeast of that river. Hasdrubal was not unmindful of the 
necessity of acting in concert with his brother. He sent mes- 
sengers to Hannibal to announce his own line of march, and to 
propose that they should unite their armies in South Umbria, 
and then wheel round against Rome. Those messengers trav- 
ersed the greater part of Italy in safety ; but, when close to the 
object of their mission, were captured by a Roman detachment ; 
and Hasdrubal's letter, detailing his whole plan of the campaign, 

can traverse the greater part of that country without venturing far from the 
high grounds. 



102 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

was laid, not in his brother's hands, but in those of the com- 
mander of the Roman armies of the south. Nero saw at once 
the full importance of the crisis. The two sons of Hamilcar 

wore now within two hundred miles of eaeh other, and if Rome 
were to be saved, the brothers must never meet alive. Nero in- 
stantly ordered seven thousand picked men, a thousand being 
cavalry, to hold themselves in readiness' for a secret expedition 
against one of Hannibal's garrisons : and as soon as night had 
set in, he hurried forward on his bold enterprise ; but he quick- 
ly left the southern road towards Lucania, and, wheeling- round, 
pressed northward with the utmost rapidity towards Picenum. 
lie had during the preceding afternoon sent messengers to 
Rome, who were to lay Hasdrubal's letters before the senate. 
There was a law forbidding a consul to make war or to march 
his army beyond the limits of the province assigned to him ; but 
in such an emergency Xero did not wait for the permission of 
the senate to execute his project, but informed them that he was 
already on his march to join Livius against llasdrubal. He ad- 
vised them to send the two legions which formed the home gar- 
rison on to Naraia, so as to defend that pass of the Flaminian 
road against Hasdrubal. in case he should march upon Rome be- 
fore the consular armies could attack him. They wore to supply 
the place of these two legions at Rome by a levy en masse m the 
city, and by ordering up the reserve legion from Capua. These 
wore his communications to the senate. He also sent horsemen 
forward along his line of march, with orders to the local author- 
ities to bring stores of provisions and refreshments of every 
kind to the roadside, and to have relays of carriages ready for 
the conveyance of the wearied soldiers. Such were the precau- 
tions which he took for accelerating his march ; and when lie 
had advanced some little distance from his camp, he briefly in- 
formed his soldiers of the real object of their expedition. He 
told them that there never was a design more seemingly auda- 
cious, and more really safe. He said he was loading them to a 
certain victory, for his colleague had an army large enough to 
balance the enemy already, so that their swords would decisively 
turn the scale. The very rumor that a fresh consul and a fresh 
army had come up, when heard on the battle-field (and he would 
take care that they should not be heard of before they wore seen 
and felt), would settle the campaign. They would have all the 
orodit of the victory, and of having dealt the final decisive blow. 
He appealed to the enthusiastic reception which they had already 
met with on their line of march as a proof and an omen of their 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 103 

good fortune.* And, indeed, their whole path was amid the 
vows and prayers and praises of their countrymen. The entire 
population of the districts through which they passed flocked 
to the roadside to see and bless the deliverers of their country. 
Food, drink, and refreshments of every kind were eagerly pressed 
on their acceptance. Each peasant thought a favor was conferred 
on him if one of Nero's chosen band would accept aught at his 
hands. The soldiers caught the full spirit of their leader. Night 
and day they marched forward, taking their hurried meals in the 
ranks, and resting by relays in the wagons which the zeal of the 
country -people provided, and which followed in the rear of the 
column. 

Meanwhile, at Rome, the news of Nero's expedition had caused 
the greatest excitement and alarm. All men felt the full audac- 
ity of the enterprise, but hesitated what epithet to apply to it. 
It was evident that Nero's conduct would be judged of by the 
event — that most unfair criterion, as the Roman historian truly 
terms it.f People reasoned on the perilous state in which Nero 
had left the rest of his army, without a general, and deprived of 
the core of its strength, in the vicinity of the terrible Hannibal. 
They speculated on how long it would take Hannibal to pursue 
and overtake Nero himself and his expeditionary force. They 
talked over the former disasters of the war, and the fall of both 
the consuls of the last year. All these calamities had come on 
them while they had only one Carthaginian general and army to 
deal with in Italy. Now they had two Punic wars at one time. 
They had two Carthaginian armies ; they had almost two Han- 
nibals in Italy. Hasdrubal was sprung from the same father ; 
trained up in the same hostility to Rome ; equally practised in 
battle against its legions ; and, if the comparative speed and suc- 
cess with which he had crossed the Alps was a fair test, he was 
even a better general than his brother. With fear for their in- 
terpreter of every rumor, they exaggerated the strength of their 
enemy's forces in every quarter, and criticised and distrusted 
their own. 

Fortunately for Rome, while she was thus a prey to terror and 
anxiety, her consul's nerves were strong, and he resolutely urged 
on his march towards Sena, where his colleague, Livius, and the 
pnetor Porcius were encamped ; Hasdrubal's army being in posi- 

* Livy, lib. xxvii., c. 45. 

f " Adparebat (quo nihil iniquius est) ex eventu famara habiturum." — 
Livy, lib. xxvii., c. 44. 



104 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

tion about half a mile to the north. Nero had sent couriers for- 
ward to apprise his colleague of his project and of his approach ; 
and by the advice of Livius, Nero so timed his final march as to 
reach the camp at Sena by night. According to a previous ar- 
rangement, Nero's men were received silently into the tents of 
their comrades, each according to his rank. By these means 
there was no enlargement of the camp that could betray to Has- 
drubal the accession of force which the Romans had received. 
This was considerable, as Nero's numbers had been increased 
on the march by the volunteers, who offered themselves in crowds, 
and from whom he selected the most promising men, and espe- 
cially the veterans of former campaigns. A council of war was 
held on the morning after his arrival, in which some advised 
that time should be given for Nero's men to refresh themselves, 
after the fatigue of such a march. But Nero vehemently op- 
posed all delay. " The officer," said he, " who is for giving time 
for my men here to rest themselves is for giving time to Han- 
nibal to attack my men, whom I have left in the camp in Apulia. 
He is for giving time to Hannibal and Hasdrubal to discover my 
march, and to manoeuvre for a junction with each other in Cisal- 
pine Gaul at their leisure. We must fight instantly, while both 
the foe here and the foe in the south are ignorant of our move- 
ments. We must destroy this Hasdrubal, and I must be back 
in Apulia before Hannibal awakes from his torpor."* Nero's 
advice prevailed. It was resolved to fight directly ; and before 
the consuls and praetor left the tent of Livius, the red ensign, 
which was the signal to prepare for immediate action, was hoist- 
ed, and the Romans forthwith drew up in battle array outside 
the camp. 

Hasdrubal had been anxious to bring Livius and Porcius to 
battle, though he had not judged it expedient to attack them in 
their lines. And now, on hearing that the Romans offered bat- 
tle, he also drew up his men, and advanced towards them. No 
spy or deserter had informed him of Nero's arrival ; nor had he 
received any direct information that he had more than his old 
enemies to deal with. But as he rode forward to reconnoitre 
the Roman line, he thought that their numbers seemed to have 
increased, and that the armor of some of them was unusually 
dull and stained. He noticed also that the horses of some of 
the cavalry appeared to be rough and out of condition, as if they 
had just come from a succession of forced marches. So also, 

* Livy, lib. xxvii., c. 45. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 105 

though, owing to the precaution of Livius, the Roman camp 
showed no change of size, it had not escaped the quick ear of 
the Carthaginian general that the trumpet which gave the sig- 
nal to the Roman legions sounded that morning once oftener 
than usual, as if directing the troops of some additional superior 
officer. Hasdrubal, from his Spanish campaigns, was well ac- 
quainted with all the sounds and signals of Roman war ; and, 
from all that he heard and saw, he felt convinced that both the 
Roman consuls were before him. In doubt and difficulty as to 
what might have taken place between the armies of the south, 
and probably hoping that Hannibal also was approaching, Has- 
drubal determined to avoid an encounter with the combined 
Roman forces, and to endeavor to retreat upon Insubrian Gaul, 
where he would be in a friendly country, and could endeavor to 
reopen his communications with his brother. He therefore led 
his troops back into their camp ; and, as the Romans did not 
venture on an assault upon his intrenchments, and Hasdrubal 
did not choose to commence his retreat in their sight, the day 
passed away in inaction. At the first watch of the night, Has- 
drubal led his men silently out of their camp, and moved north- 
wards towards the Metaurus, in the hope of placing that river 
between himself and the Romans before his retreat was discov- 
ered. His guides betrayed him ; and having purposely led him 
away from the part of the river that was fordable, they made 
their escape in the dark, and left Hasdrubal and his army wan- 
dering in confusion along the steep bank, and seeking in vain 
for a spot where the stream could be safely crossed. At last 
they halted ; and when day dawned on them, Hasdrubal found 
that great numbers of his men, in their fatigue and impatience, 
had lost all discipline and subordination, and that many of his 
Gallic auxiliaries had got drunk, and were lying helpless in their 
quarters. The Roman cavalry was soon seen coming up in pur- 
suit, followed at no great distance by the legions, which marched 
in readiness for an instant engagement. It was hopeless for 
Hasdrubal to think of continuing his retreat before them. The 
prospect of immediate battle might recall the disordered part of 
his troops to a sense of duty, and revive the instinct of disci- 
pline. He therefore ordered his men to prepare for action in- 
stantly, and made the best arrangement of them that the nature 
of the ground would permit. 

Heeren has well described the general appearance of a Cartha- 
ginian army. He says : " It was an assemblage of the most 
opposite races of the human species, from the farthest parts of 



106 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

the globe. Hordes of half-naked Gauls were ranged next to 
companies of white-clothed Iberians, and savage Ligurians next 
to the far-travelled Nasamones and Lotophagi. Carthaginians 
and Phcenici - Africans formed the centre ; while innumerable 
troops of Numidian horsemen, taken from all the tribes of the 
desert, swarmed about on unsaddled horses, and formed the 
wings. The van was composed of Balearic slingers ; and a line 
of colossal elephants, with their Ethiopian guides, formed, as it 
were, a chain of moving fortresses before the whole army.'* 
Such were the usual materials and arrangements of the hosts 
that fought for Carthage ; but the troops under Hasdrubal were 
not in all respects thus constituted or thus stationed. He seems 
to have been especially deficient in cavalry, and he had few Af- 
rican troops, though some Carthaginians of high rank were with 
him. His veteran Spanish infantry, armed with helmets and 
shields, and short cut-and-thrust swords, were the best part of 
his army. These, and his few Africans, he drew up on his 
right wing, under his own personal command. In the centre he 
placed his Ligurian infantry, and on the left wing he placed or 
retained the Gauls, who were armed with long javelins and with 
huge broadswords and targets. The rugged nature of the ground 
in front and on the flank of this part of his line made him hope 
that the Roman right wing would be unable to come to close 
quarters with these unserviceable barbarians, before he could 
make some impression with his Spanish veterans on the Roman 
left. This was the only chance that he had of victory or safety, 
and he seems to have done everything that good generalship 
could do to secure it. He placed his elephants in advance of 
his centre and right wing. He had caused the driver of each 
of them to be provided with a sharp iron spike and a mallet ; 
and had given orders that every beast that became unmanage- 
able, and ran back upon his own ranks, should be instantly 
killed, by driving the spike into the vertebra at the junction of 
the head and the spine. Hasdrubal's elephants were ten in 
number. We have no trustworthy information as to the amount 
of his infantry, but it is quite clear that he was greatly outnum- 
bered by the combined Roman forces. 

The tactic of the Roman legions had not yet acquired the per- 
fection which it received from the military genius of Marius,* 

* Most probably during the period of his prolonged consulship, from B.C. 
104 to b.c. 101, while he was training his army against the Cimbri and the 
Teutons. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 107 

and which we read of in the first chapter of Gibbon. We pos- 
sess in that great work an account of the Roman legions at the 
end of the commonwealth, and during the early ages of the em- 
pire, which those alone can adequately admire who have attempt- 
ed a similar description. We have also, in the sixth and seven- 
teenth books of Polybius, an elaborate discussion on the military 
system of the Romans in his time, which was not far distant 
from the time of the battle of the Metaurus. But the subject 
is beset with difficulties ; and instead of entering into minute 
but inconclusive details, I would refer to Gibbon's first chapter, 
as serving for a general description of the Roman army in its 
period of perfection, and remark that the training and armor 
which the whole legion received in the time of Augustus were, 
two centuries earlier, only partially introduced. Two divisions 
of troops, called Hastati and Principes, formed the bulk of each 
Roman legion in the second Punic war. Each of these divisions 
was twelve hundred strong. The Hastatus and the Princeps 
legionary bore a breastplate or coat of mail, brazen greaves, and 
a brazen helmet, with a lofty, upright crest of scarlet or black 
feathers. He had a large oblong shield ; and, as weapons of 
offence, two javelins, one of which was light and slender, but 
the other was a strong and massive weapon, with a shaft about 
four feet long, and an iron head of equal length. The sword 
was carried on the right thigh, and was a short cut-and-thrust 
weapon, like that which was used by the Spaniards. Thus 
armed, the Hastati formed the front division of the legion, and 
the Principes the second. Each division was drawn up about 
ten deep ; a space of three feet being allowed between the files 
as well as the ranks, so as to give each legionary ample room 
for the use of his javelins and of his sword and shield. The 
men in the second rank did not stand immediately behind those 
in the first rank, but the files were alternate, like the position of 
the men on a draught-board. This was termed the quincunx 
order. Niebuhr considers that this arrangement enabled the 
legion to keep up a shower of javelins on the enemy for some 
considerable time. He says : " When the first line had hurled 
its pila, it probably stepped back between those who stood be- 
hind it, who with two steps forward restored the front nearly 
to its first position ; a movement which, on account of the ar- 
rangement of the quincunx, could be executed without losing 
a moment. Thus one line succeeded the other in the front 
till it was time to draw the swords ; nay, when it was found 
expedient, the lines which had already been in the front 



108 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

might repeat this change, since the stores of pila were surely 
not confined to the two which each soldier took with him into 
battle. 

" The same change must have taken place in fighting with 
the sword ; which, when the same tactic was adopted on both 
sides, was anything but a confused melee; on the contrary, it 
was a series of single combats." He adds that a military man 
of experience had been consulted by him on the subject, and 
had given it as his opinion "that the change of the lines as 
described above was by no means impracticable ; and in the 
absence of the deafening noise of gunpowder, it cannot have 
had even any difficulty with trained troops." 

The third division of the legion was six hundred strong, and 
acted as a reserve. It was always composed of veteran sol- 
diers, who were called the Triarii. Their arms were the 
same as those of the Principes and Hastati ; except that 
each Triarian carried a spear instead of javelins. The rest 
of the legion consisted of light-armed troops, who acted as 
skirmishers. The cavalry of each legion was at this period 
about three hundred strong. The Italian allies, who were at- 
tached to the legion, seem to have been similarly armed and 
equipped, but their numerical proportion of cavalry was much 
larger. 

Such was the nature of the forces that advanced on the 
Roman side to the battle of the Metaurus. Nero commanded 
the right wing, Livius the left, and the praetor Porcius had the 
command of the centre. " Both Romans and Carthaginians 
well understood how much depended upon the fortune of this 
day, and how little hope of safety there was for the vanquished. 
Only the Romans herein seemed to have had the better in con- 
ceit and opinion, that they were to fight with men desirous to 
have fled from them. And according to this presumption came 
Livius the consul, with a proud bravery, to give charge on the 
Spaniards and Africans, by whom he was so sharply entertained 
that victory seemed very doubtful. The Africans and Span- 
iards were stout soldiers, and well acquainted with the manner 
of the Roman fight. The Ligurians, also, were a hardy nation, 
and not accustomed to give ground ; which they needed the 
less, or were able now to do, being placed in the midst. Livi- 
us, therefore, and Porcius found great opposition ; and, with 
great slaughter on both sides, prevailed little or nothing. Be- 
sides other difficulties, they were exceedingly troubled by the 
elephants, that brake their first ranks, and put them in such 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 109 

disorder as the Roman ensigns were driven to fall back ; all 
this while Claudius Nero, laboring in vain against a steep hill, 
was unable to come to blows with the Gauls that stood opposite 
him, but out of danger. This made Hasdrubal the more con - 
fident, who, seeing his own left wing safe, did the more boldly 
and fiercely make impression on the other side upon the left 
wing of the Romans." * 

But at last Nero, who found that Hasdrubal refused his left 
wing, and who could not overcome the difficulties of the ground 
in the quarter assigned to him, decided the battle by another 
stroke of that military genius which had inspired his march. 
Wheeling a brigade of his best men round the rear of the rest 
of the Roman army, Nero fiercely charged the flank of the 
Spaniards and Africans. The charge was as successful as it 
was sudden. Rolled back in disorder upon each other, and 
overwhelmed by numbers, the Spaniards and Ligurians died, 
fighting gallantly to the last. The Gauls, who had taken little 
or no part in the strife of the day, were then surrounded, and 
butchered almost without resistance. Hasdrubal, after having, 
by the confession of his enemies, done all that a general could 
do, when he saw that the victory was irreparably lost, scorning 
to survive the gallant host which he had led, and to gratify, as 
a captive, Roman cruelty and pride, spurred his horse into the 
midst of a Roman cohort ; where, sword in hand, he met the 
death that was worthy of the son of Hamilcar and the brother 
of Hannibal. 

Success the most complete had crow r ned Nero's enterprise. 
Returning as rapidly as he had advanced, he was again facing 
the inactive enemies in the south before they even knew of his 
march. But he brought with him a ghastly trophy of w r hat he 
had done. In the true spirit of that savage brutality which de- 
formed the Roman national character, Nero ordered HasdrubaFs 
head to be flung into his brother's camp. Eleven years had 
passed since Hannibal had last gazed on those features. The 
sons of Hamilcar had then planned their system of warfare 
against Rome, which they had so nearly brought to successful 
accomplishment. Year after year had Hannibal been strug- 
gling in Italy, in the hope of one day hailing the arrival of him 
whom he had left in Spain ; and of seeing his brother's eye 
flash with affection and pride at the junction of their irresistible 
hosts. He now saw that eye glazed in death, and, in the agony 

" Historic of the World," by Sir Walter Raleigli, p. 946. 



110 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

of his heart, the great Carthaginian groaned aloud that he rec- 
ognized his country's destiny.* 

Rome was almost delirious with joy :j- so agonizing had been 
the suspense with which the battle's verdict on that great issue 
of a nation's life and death had been awaited; so overpower- 
ing was the sudden reaction to the consciousness of security 
and to the full glow of glory and success. From the time when 
it had been known at Rome that the armies were in presence 
of each other, the people had never ceased to throng the forum, 
the conscript fathers had been in permanent sitting at the sen- 
ate-house. Ever and anon a fearful whisper crept among the 
crowd of a second Canna3 won by a second Hannibal. Then 
came truer rumors that the day was Rome's ; but the people 
were sick at heart, and heeded them not. The shrines were 
thronged with trembling women, who seemed to weary heaven 
with prayers to shield them from the brutal Gaul and the sav- 
age African. Presently the reports of good fortune assumed 
a more definite form. It was said that two Narnian horsemen 
had ridden from the east into the Roman camp of observation 
in Umbria, and had brought tidings of the utter slaughter of 
the foe. Such news seemed too good to be true. Men tort- 
ured their neighbors and themselves by demonstrating its im- 
probability and by ingeniously criticising its evidence. Soon, 
however, a letter came from Lucius Manlius Acidinus, who 
commanded in Umbria, and who announced the arrival of the 
Narnian horsemen in his camp, and the intelligence which they 
brought thither. The letter was first laid before the senate, 
and then before the assembly of the people. The excitement 
grew more and more vehement. The letter was read and re- 
read aloud to thousands. It confirmed the previous rumor. 
But even this was insufficient to allay the feverish anxiety that 
thrilled through every breast in Rome. The letter might be a 
forgery : the Narnian horsemen might be traitors or impostors. 
" We must see officers from the army that fought, or hear de- 
spatches from the consuls themselves, and then only will we 
believe." Such was the public sentiment, though some of more 
hopeful nature already permitted themselves a foretaste of joy. 
At length came news that officers who really had been in the 

* " Carthagini jam non ego nuntios 
Mittam superbos. Occidit, occidit 
Spes omnis et fortuua nostri 

Nominis, Hasdrubale interemto." — Horace. 

f See the splendid description in Livy, lib. xxvii., sec. 50, 51. 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. \\\ 

battle were near at hand. Forthwith the whole city poured 
forth to meet them, each person coveting to be the first to 
receive with his own eyes and ears convincing proofs of the 
reality of such a deliverance. One vast throng of human be- 
ings filled the road from Rome to the Milvian bridge. The 
three officers, Lucius Veturius Pollio, Publius Licinius Varus, 
and Quintus Caicilius Metellus, came riding on, making their 
way slowly through the living sea around them. As they 
advanced, each told the successive waves of eager questioners 
that Rome was victorious. " We have destroyed Hasdrubal 
and his army, our legions are safe, and our consuls are unhurt." 
Each happy listener who caught the welcome sounds from their 
lips retired to communicate his own joy to others, and became 
himself the centre of an anxious and inquiring group. When 
the officers had, with much difficulty, reached the senate-house, 
and the crowd was with still greater difficulty put back from 
entering and mingling with the conscript fathers, the de- 
spatches of Livius and Nero were produced and read aloud. 
From the senate-house the officers proceeded to the public as- 
sembly, where the despatches were read again ; and then the 
senior officer, Lucius Veturius, gave in his own words a fuller 
detail of how went the fight. When he had done speaking to 
the people, a universal shout of rapture rent the air. The 
vast assembly then separated : some hastening to the temples 
to find in devotion a vent for the overflowing excitement of 
their hearts ; others seeking their homes to gladden their wives 
and children with the good news, and to feast their own eyes 
with the sight of the loved ones, who now, at last, were safe 
from outrage and slaughter. The senate ordained a thanks- 
giving of three days for the great deliverance which had been 
vouchsafed to Rome ; and throughout that period the temples 
were incessantly crowded with exulting worshippers ; and the 
matrons, with their children round them, in their gayest attire, 
and with joyous aspects and voices, offered grateful praises to 
the immortal gods, as if all apprehension of evil were over, and 
the war were already ended. 

With the revival of confidence came also the revival of ac- 
tivity in traffic and commerce, and in all the busy intercourse 
of daily life. A numbing load was taken off each heart and 
brain, and once more men bought and sold, and formed their 
plans freely, as had been done before the dire Carthaginians 
came into Italy. Hannibal was, certainly, still in the land ; 
but all felt that his power to destroy was broken, and that the 



J 



112 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

crisis of the war-fever was past. The Metaurus, indeed, had 
not only determined the event of the strife between Rome and 
Carthage, but it had insured to Rome two centuries more of 
almost unchanged conquest. Hannibal did actually, with al- 
most superhuman skill, retain his hold on Southern Italy for a 
few years longer ; but the imperial city and her allies were no 
longer in danger from his arms, and, after Hannibal's down- 
fall, the great military republic of the ancient world met in her 
career of conquest no other worthy competitor. Byron has 
termed Nero's march " unequalled," and in the magnitude of 
its consequences it is so. Viewed only as a military exploit, 
it remains unparalleled, save by Marlborough's bold march 
from Flanders to the Danube, in the campaign of Blenheim, 
and perhaps also by the Archduke Charles's lateral march in 
1796, by which he overwhelmed the French under Jourdain, 
and then, driving Moreau through the Black Forest and across 
the Rhine, for a while freed Germany from her invaders. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF THE ME- 
TAURUS, b.c. 207, AND ARMINIUS'S VICTORY OVER THE 
ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS, a.d. 9. 

b.c. 205 to 201. Scipio is made consul, and carries the war 
into Africa. He gains several victories there, and the Car- 
thaginians recall Hannibal from Italy to oppose him. Battle 
of Zama in 201 : Hannibal is defeated, and Carthage sues for 
peace. End of the second Punic war, leaving Rome confirmed 
in the dominion of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and also 
mistress of great part of Spain, and virtually predominant in 
North Africa. 

200. Rome makes war upon Philip, king of Macedonia. She 
pretends to take the Greek cities of the Achaean League and 
the ^Etolians under her protection as allies. Philip is defeated 
by the proconsul Flaminius at CynocephaLne, 198 ; and begs for 
peace. The Macedonian influence is now completely destroyed 
in Greece, and the Roman established in its stead, though 
Rome nominally acknowledged the independence of the Greek 
cities. 

194. Rome makes war upon Antiochus, king of Syria. He 
is completely defeated at the battle of Magnesia, 192, and is 
glad to accept peace on conditions which leave him dependent 
upon Rome. 

200 to 190. "Thus, within the short space of ten years, was 
laid the foundation of the Roman authority in the East, and 



BATTLE OF THE ME TAURUS. 113 

the general state of affairs entirely changed. If Rome was not 
yet the ruler, she was at least the arbitress of the world from 
the Atlantic to the Euphrates. The power of the three principal 
states was so completely humbled that they durst not, without 
the permission of Rome, begin any new war ; the fourth, Egypt, 
had already, in the year 201, placed herself under the guardian- 
ship of Rome ; and the lesser powers followed of themselves, 
esteeming it an honor to be called the allies of Rome. With 
this name the nations were lulled into security, and brought 
under the Roman yoke ; the new political system of Rome was 
founded and strengthened partly by exciting and supporting 
the weaker states against the stronger, however unjust the cause 
of the former might be, and partly by factions which she found 
means to raise in every state, even the smallest." — (Heeren.) 

172. War renewed between Macedon and Rome. Decisive 
defeat of Perses, the Macedonian king, by Paulus iEmilius at 
Pydna, 168. Destruction of the Macedonian monarchy. 

150. Rome oppresses the Carthaginians till they are driven 
to take up arms, and the third Punic war begins. Carthage is 
taken and destroyed by Scipio ^Emilianus, 146, and the Car- 
thaginian territory is made a Roman province. 

146. In the same year in which Carthage falls, Corinth is 
stormed by the Roman army under Mummius. The Achaean 
League had been goaded into hostilities with Rome by means 
similar to those employed against Carthage. The greater part 
of Southern Greece is made a Roman province, under the name 
of Achaia. 

133. Numantium is destroyed by Scipio ^Emilianus. "The 
war against the Spaniards, who, of all the nations subdued by 
the Romans, defended their liberty with the greatest obstinacy, 
began in the year 200, six years after the total expulsion of the 
Carthaginians from their country, 206. It was exceedingly ob- 
stinate, partly from the natural state of the country, which was 
thickly populated, and where every place became a fortress; 
partly from the courage of the inhabitants ; but at last all, owing 
to the peculiar policy of the Romans, who yielded to employ 
their allies to subdue other nations. This war continued, al- 
most without interruption, from the year 200 to 133, and was 
for the most part carried on at the same time in Hispania 
Citerior, where the Celtiberi were the most formidable adver- 
saries, and in Hispania Ulterior, where the Lusitani were equally 
powerful. Hostilities were at the highest pitch in 195, under 
Cato, who reduced Hispania Citerior to a state of tranquillity in 



114 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

185-179, when the Celtiberi were attacked in their native ter- 
ritory; and 155-150, when the Romans in both provinces were 
so often beaten that nothing was more dreaded by the soldiers 
at home than to be sent there. The extortions and perfidy of 
Servius Galba placed Viriathus, in the year 146, at the head of 
his nations, the Lusitani : the war, however, soon extended itself 
to Hispania Citerior, where many nations, particularly the Nu- 
mantines, took up arms against Rome, 143. Viriathus, some- 
times victorious and sometimes defeated, was never more for- 
midable than in the moment of defeat ; because he knew how to 
take advantage of his knowledge of the country and of the dis- 
positions of his countrymen. After his murder, caused by the 
treachery of Saspio, 140, Lusitania was subdued; but the Nu- 
mantine war became still more violent, and the Numantines 
compelled the consul Mancinus to a disadvantageous treaty, 137. 
When Scipio, in the year 133, put an end to this war, Spain was 
certainly tranquil ; the northern parts, however, were still un- 
subdued, though the Romans penetrated as far as Galatia." — 
(Heeren.) 

134. Commencement of the revolutionary century at Rome, 
i. e. from the time of the excitement produced by the attempts 
made by the Gracchi to reform the commonwealth to the bat- 
tle of Actium (b.c. 31), which established Octavianus Caesar as 
sole master of the Roman world. Throughout this period Rome 
was engaged in important foreign wars, most of which procured 
large accessions to her territory. 

118 to 106. The Jugurthine war. Numidia is conquered, and 
made a Roman province. 

113 to 101. The great and terrible war of the Cimbri and 
Teutones against Rome. These nations of northern warriors 
slaughter several Roman armies in Gaul, and in 102 attempt to 
penetrate into Italy. The military genius of Marius here saves 
his country ; he defeats the Teutones near Aix, in Provence ; 
and in the following year he destroys the army of the Cimbri, 
who had passed the Alps, near Vercelke. 

91 to 88. The war of the Italian allies against Rome. This 
was caused by the refusal of Rome to concede to them the 
rights of Roman citizenship. After a sanguine struggle, Rome 
gradually grants it. 

89 to 85. First war of the Romans against Mithridates the 
Great, king of Pontus, who had overrun Asia Minor, Macedonia, 
and Greece. Sylla defeats his armies, and forces him to with- 
draw his forces from Europe. Sylla returns to Rome to carry 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 11 5 

on the civil war against the son and partisans of Marius. He 
makes himself dictator. 

74 to 64. The last Mithridatic wars. Lucullus, and after him 
Pompeius, command against the great King of Pontus, who at 
last is poisoned by his son, while designing to raise the warlike 
tribes of the Danube against Rome, and to invade Italy from 
the northeast. Great Asiatic conquests of the Romans. Be- 
sides the ancient province of Pergamus, the maritime countries 
of Bithynia, and nearly all Paphlagonia and Pontus, are formed 
into a Roman province, under the name of Bithynia ; while on 
the southern coast Cilicia and Pamphylia form another, under 
the name of Cilicia ; Phoenicia and Syria compose a third, 
under the name of Syria. On the other hand, Great Armenia is 
left to Tigranes, Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, the Bosphorus to 
Pharnaces, Judaea to Hyrcanus ; and some other small states are 
also given to petty princes, all of whom remain dependent on 
Rome. 

58 to 50. Caesar conquers Gaul. 

54. Crassus attacks the Parthians with a Roman army, but 
is overthrown and killed at Carrhae in Mesopotamia. His lieu- 
tenant Cassius collects the wrecks of the army, and prevents the 
Parthians from conquering Syria. 

49 to 45. The civil war between Caesar and the Pompeian 
party. Caesar drives Pompeius out of Italy, conquers his ene- 
my's forces in Spain, and then passes into Greece, where Pom- 
peius and the other aristocratic chiefs had assembled a large 
army. Caesar gives them a decisive defeat at the great battle of 
Pharsalia. Pompeius flies for refuge to Alexandria, where he is 
assassinated. Caesar, who had followed him thither, is involved 
in a war with the Egyptians, in which he is finally victorious. 
The celebrated Cleopatra is made queen of Egypt. Caesar next 
marches into Pontus, and defeats the son of Mithridates, who 
had taken part in the war against him. He then proceeds to 
the Roman province of Africa, where some of the Pompeian 
chiefs had established themselves, aided by Juba, a native 
prince. He overthrows them at the battle of Thapsus. He 
is again obliged to lead an army into Spain, where the sons 
of Pompeius had collected the wrecks of their father's party. 
He crushes the last of his enemies at the battle of Munda. 
Under the title of dictator, he is sole master of the Roman 
world. 

44. Caesar is killed in the senate-house ; the civil wars are 
soon renewed, Brutus and Cassius being at the head of the aris- 



110 BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 

tocratic party, and the party of Caesar being led by Mark An- 
tony and Octavianus Caesar, afterwards Augustus. 

42. Defeat and death of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. Dis- 
sensions soon break out between Octavianus Caesar and Antony. 

31. Antony is completely defeated by Octavianus Caesar at 
Actium. He flies to Egypt with Cleopatra. Octavianus pur- 
sues him. Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves. Egypt be- 
comes a Roman province, and Octavianus Caesar is left undis- 
puted master of Rome, and all that is Rome's. The state of the 
Roman world at this time is best described in two lines of 
Tacitus — " Postquam bellatum apud Actium, atque omnem po- 
testatem ad unum conferri pads inter f wit" (Hist., lib. i., s. 1.) 

The forty-fourth year of the reign of Augustus, and the first 
year of the 195th Olympiad, is commonly assigned as the date 
of The Nativity of Our Lord. There is much of the beauty 
of holiness in the remarks with which the American historian 
Eliot closes his survey of the conquering career and civil down- 
fall of the Roman commonwealth : 

" So far as humility amongst men was necessary for the prep- 
aration of a truer freedom than could ever be known under 
heathenism, the part of Rome, however dreadful, was yet sub- 
lime. It was not to unite, to discipline, or to fortify humanity, 
but to enervate, to loosen, and to scatter its forces, that the peo- 
ple whose history we have read were allowed to conquer the earth, 
and were then themselves reduced to deep submission. Every 
good labor of theirs that failed was, by reason of what we es- 
teem its failure, a step gained nearer to the end of the well-nigh 
universal evil that prevailed ; while every bad achievement that 
may seem to us to have succeeded, temporarily or lastingly, with 
them was equally, by reason of its success, a progress towards 
the good of which the coming would have been longed and 
prayed for, could it have been comprehended. Alike in the 
virtues and in the vices of antiquity, we may read the progress 
towards its humiliation.* Yet, on the other hand, it must not 
seem, at the last, that the disposition of the Romans or of man- 
kind to submission was secured solely through the errors and 

* " The Christian revelation," says Leland, in his truly admirable work on 
the subject (vol. i., p. 488), " was made to the world at a time when it was 
most wanted ; when the darkness and corruption of mankind were arrived at 
the height. . . . If it had been published much sooner, and before there had 
been a full trial made of what was to be expected from human wisdom and 
philosophy, the great need men stood in of such an extraordinary divine 
dispensation would not have been so apparent." 



BATTLE OF THE METAURUS. 117 

the apparently ineffectual toils which we have traced back to 
these times of old. Desires too true to have been wasted, and 
strivings too humane to have been unproductive, though all 
were overshadowed by passing wrongs, still gleam as if in an- 
ticipation or in preparation of the advancing day. 

" At length, when it had been proved by ages of conflict and 
loss that no lasting joy and no abiding truth could be procured 
through the power, the freedom, or the faith of mankind, the 
angels sang their song in which the glory of God and the good- 
will of men were together blended. The universe was wrapped 
in momentary tranquillity, and ' peaceful was the night ' above 
the manger at Bethlehem. We may believe that when the 
morning came, the ignorance, the confusion, and the servitude 
of humanity had left their darkest forms amongst the midnight 
clouds. It was still, indeed, beyond the power of man to lay 
hold securely of the charity and the regeneration that were 
henceforth to be his law ; and the indefinable terrors of the 
future, whether seen from the West or from the East, were not 
at once to be dispelled. But before the death of the Emperor 
Augustus, in the midst of his fallen subjects, the business of 
The Father had already been begun in the temple at Jerusalem ; 
and near by, The Son was increasing in wisdom and in stature, 
and in favor with God and man."* 

* Eliot's " Liberty of Rome," vol. ii., p. 521. 



118 VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER 



CHAPTER V. 

VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER 

VARUS, A.D. 9. 

" Hac clade factum, ut Imperium quod in littore oceani non steterat, in 
ripa Rheni fluminis staret." — Florus. 

To a truly illustrious Frenchman, whose reverses as a minister 
can never obscure his achievements in the world of letters, we 
are indebted for the most profound and most eloquent estimate 
that we possess of the importance of the Germanic element in 
European civilization, and of the extent to which the human 
race is indebted to those brave warriors, who long were the un- 
conquered antagonists, and finally became the conquerors, of 
Imperial Rome. 

Twenty-three eventful years have passed away since M. Guizot 
delivered from the chair of modern history at Paris his course 
of lectures on the History of Civilization in Europe. During 
those years the spirit of earnest inquiry into the germs and 
early developments of existing institutions has become more 
and more active and universal ; and the merited celebrity of M. 
Guizot's work has proportionally increased. Its admirable anal- 
ysis of the complex political and social organizations of which 
the modern civilized world is made up must have led thousands 
to trace with keener interest the great crises of times past, by 
which the characteristics of the present were determined. The 
narrative of one of these great crises, of the epoch a.d. 9, when 
Germany took up arms for her independence against Roman in- 
vasion, has for us this special attraction — that it forms part of 
our own national history. Had Arminius been supine or un- 
successful, our Germanic ancestors would have been enslaved or 
exterminated in their original seats along the Eyder and the 
Elbe ; this island would never have borne the name of England, 
and " we, this great English nation, whose race and language 
are now overrunning the earth, from one end of it to the oth- 
er," * would have been utterly cut off from existence. 

* Arnold's " Lectures on Modern History." 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 119 

Arnold may, indeed, go too far in holding that we are wholly 
unconnected in race with the Romans and Britons who inhabit- 
ed this country before the coming-over of the Saxons ; that, 
" nationally speaking, the history of Ca?sar's invasion has no 
more to do with us than the natural history of the animals which 
then inhabited our forests." There seems ample evidence to 
prove that the Romanized Celts, whom our Teutonic forefathers 
found here, influenced materially the character of our nation. 
But the main stream of our people was and is Germanic. Our 
language alone decisively proves this. Arminius is far more 
truly one of our national heroes than Caractacus : and it was 
our own primaeval fatherland that the brave German rescued 
when he slaughtered the Roman legions eighteen centuries ago 
in the marshy glens between the Lippe and the Ems.* 

Dark and disheartening, even to heroic spirits, must have 
seemed the prospects of Germany when Arminius planned the 
general rising of his countrymen against Rome. Half the land 
was occupied by Roman garrisons ; and, what was worse, many 
of the Germans seemed patiently acquiescent in their state of 
bondage. The braver portion, whose patriotism could be relied 
on, was ill-armed and undisciplined ; while the enemy's troops 
consisted of veterans in the highest state of equipment and 
training, familiarized with victory, and commanded by officers 
of proved skill and valor. The resources of Rome seemed 
boundless ; her tenacity of purpose was believed to be invin- 
cible. There was no hope of foreign sympathy or aid ; for " the 
self-governing powers that had rilled the old world had bent 
one after another before the rising power of Rome, and had van- 
ished. The earth seemed left void of independent nations."-)- 

The German chieftain knew well the gigantic power of the 
oppressor. Arminius was no rude savage, righting out of mere 
animal instinct, or in ignorance of the might of his adversary. 
He was familiar with the Roman language and civilization ; he 
had served in the Roman armies ; he had been admitted to the 
Roman citizenship, and raised to the dignity of the equestrian 
order. It was part of the subtle policy of Rome to confer rank 
and privileges on the youth of the leading families in the na- 
tions which she wished to enslave. Among other young Ger- 
man chieftains, Arminius and his brother, who were the heads 
of the noblest house in the tribe of the Cherusci, had been se- 

* See post, remarks oil the relationship between the Cherusci and the 
English. f Ranke. 






120 VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER 

lected as fit objects for the exercise of this insidious system. 
Roman refinements and dignities succeeded in denationalizing 
the brother, who assumed the Roman name of Flavius, and ad- 
hered to Rome throughout all her wars against his country. 
Arminius remained unbought by honors or wealth, uncorrupted 
by refinement or luxury. He aspired to and obtained from 
Roman enmity a higher title than ever could have been given 
him by Roman favor. It is in the page of Rome's greatest his- 
torian that his name has come down to us with the proud ad- 
dition of " Liberator haud dubie Germania?." * 

Often must the young chieftain, while meditating the exploit 
which has thus immortalized him, have anxiously revolved in 
his mind the fate of the many great men who had been crushed 
in the attempt which he was about to renew — the attempt to 
stay the chariot-wheels of triumphant Rome. Could he hope to 
succeed where Hannibal and Mithridates had perished ? What 
had been the doom of Viriathus ? and what warning against vain 
valor was written on the desolate site where Numantia once had 
flourished ? Nor was a caution wanting in scenes nearer home 
and in more recent times. The Gauls had fruitlessly struggled 
for eight years against Caesar ; and the gallant Vercingetorix, 
who in the last year of the war had roused all his countrymen 
to insurrection, who had cut off Roman detachments, and brought 
Caesar himself to the extreme of peril at Alesia — he, too, had 
finally succumbed, had been led captive in Caesar's triumph, and 
had then been butchered in cold blood in a Roman dungeon. 

It was true that Rome was no longer the great military repub- 
lic which for so many ages had shattered the kingdoms of the 
world. Her system of government was changed ; and, after a 
century of revolution and civil war, she had placed herself under 
the despotism of a single ruler. But the discipline of her troops 
was yet unimpaired, and her warlike spirit seemed unabated. 
The first years of the empire had been signalized by conquests 
as valuable as any gained by the republic in a corresponding 
period. It is a great fallacy, though apparently sanctioned by 
great authorities, to suppose that the foreign policy pursued by 
Augustus was pacific. He certainly recommended such a pol- 
icy to his successors, either from timidity or from jealousy of 
their fame outshining his own ; \ but he himself, until Arminius 
broke his spirit, had followed a very different course. Besides 

♦Tacitus, "Annals," ii., 88. 

f "Incertum metu an per invidiam." — Tac, An?i. t i., 11. 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 121 

his Spanish wars, his generals, in a series of principally aggres- 
sive campaigns, had extended the Roman frontier from the Alps 
to the Danube ; and had reduced into subjection the large and 
important countries that now form the territories of all Austria 
south of that river, and of East Switzerland, Lower Wurtemberg, 
Bavaria, the Valteline, and the Tyrol. While the progress of 
the Roman arms thus pressed the Germans from the south, still 
more formidable inroads had been made by the imperial legions 
in the west. Roman armies, moving from the province of Gaul, 
established a chain of fortresses along the right as well as the 
left bank of the Rhine, and, in a series of victorious campaigns, 
advanced their eagles as far as the Elbe, which now seemed 
added to the list of vassal rivers — to the Nile, the Rhine, the 
Rhone, the Danube, the Tagus, the Seine, and many more — that 
acknowledged the supremacy of the Tiber. Roman fleets also, 
sailing from the harbors of Gaul along the German coasts and 
up the estuaries, co-operated with the land forces of the empire, 
and seemed to display, even more decisively than her armies, 
her overwhelming superiority over the rude Germanic tribes. 
Throughout the territory thus invaded the Romans had, with 
their usual military skill, established chains of fortified posts ; 
and a powerful army of occupation was kept on foot, ready to 
move instantly on any spot where a popular outbreak might be 
attempted. 

Vast, however, and admirably organized as the fabric of Ro- 
man power appeared on the frontiers and in the provinces, there 
was rottenness at the core. In Rome's unceasing hostilities 
with foreign foes, and, still more, in her long series of desolat- 
ing civil wars, the free middle classes of Italy had almost wholly 
disappeared. Above the position which they had occupied, an 
oligarchy of wealth had reared itself ; beneath that position a 
degraded mass of poverty and misery was fermenting. Slaves, 
the chance sweepings of every conquered country, shoals of 
Africans, Sardinians, Asiatics, Illyrians, and others, made up 
the bulk of the population of the Italian peninsula. The foul- 
est profligacy of manners was general in all ranks. In universal 
weariness of revolution and civil war, and in consciousness of 
being too debased for self-government, the nation had submit- 
ted itself to the absolute authority of Augustus. Adulation was 
now the chief function of the senate ; and the gifts of genius 
and accomplishments of art were devoted to the elaboration of 
eloquently false panegyrics upon the prince and his favorite 
courtiers. With bitter indignation must the German chieftair 



122 ) VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER 

have beheld all this, and contrasted with it the rough worth of 
his own countrymen — their bravery, their fidelity to their word, 
their manly independence of spirit, their love of their national 
free institutions, and their loathing of every pollution and mean- 
ness. Above all, he must have thought of the domestic virtues 
that hallowed a German home ; of the respect there shown to 
the female character, and of the pure affection by which that 
respect was repaid. His soul must have burned within him at 
the contemplation of such a race yielding to these debased Ital- 
ians. 

Still, to persuade the Germans to combine, in spite of their 
frequent feuds among themselves, in one sudden outbreak against 
Rome ; to keep the scheme concealed from the Romans until 
the hour for action had arrived ; and then, without possessing 
a single walled town, without military stores, without training, 
to teach his insurgent countrymen to defeat veteran armies and 
storm fortifications, seemed so perilous an enterprise that prob- 
ably Arminius would have receded from it, had not a stronger 
feeling even than patriotism urged him on. Among the Ger- 
mans of high rank who had most readily submitted to the in- 
vaders and become zealous partisans of Roman authority, was a 
chieftain named Segestes. His daughter, Thusnelda, was pre- 
eminent among the noble maidens of Germany. Arminius had 
sought her hand in marriage ; but Segestes, who probably dis- 
cerned the young chief's disaffection to Rome, forbade his suit, 
and strove to preclude all communication between him and his 
daughter. Thusnelda, however, sympathized far more with the 
heroic spirit of her lover than with the timeserving policy of 
her father. An elopement baffled the precautions of Segestes ; 
who, disappointed in his hope of preventing the marriage, ac- 
cused Arminius, before the Roman governor, of having carried 
off his daughter, and of planning treason against Rome. Thus 
assailed, and dreading to see his bride torn from him by the 
officials of the foreign oppressor, Arminius delayed no longer, 
but bent all his energies to organize and execute a general insur- 
rection of the great mass of his countrymen, who hitherto had 
submitted in sullen inertness to the Roman dominion. 

A change of governors had recently taken place, which, while 
it materially favored the ultimate success of the insurgents, served, 
by the immediate aggravation of the Roman oppressions which 
it produced, to make the native population more universally 
eager to take arms. Tiberius, who was afterwards emperor, 
had lately been recalled from the command in Germany, and 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 123 

sent into Pannonia to put down a dangerous revolt which had 
broken out against the Romans in that province. The German 
patriots were thus delivered from the stern supervision of one of 
the most suspicious of mankind, and were also relieved from 
having to contend against the high military talents of a veteran 
commander, who thoroughly understood their national character 
and the nature of the country, which he himself had principally 
subdued. In the room of Tiberius, Augustus sent into Germa- 
ny Quintilius Varus, who had lately returned from the procon- 
sulate of Syria. Varus was a true representative of the higher 
classes of the Romans ; among whom a general taste for litera- 
ture, a keen susceptibility to all intellectual gratifications, a mi- 
nute acquaintance with the principles and practice of their own 
national jurisprudence, a careful training in the schools of the 
rhetoricians, and a fondness for either partaking in or watching 
'the intellectual strife of forensic oratory, had become generally 
diffused ; without, however, having humanized the old Roman 
spirit of cruel indifference for human feelings and human suffer- 
ings, and without acting as the least check on unprincipled ava- 
rice and ambition, or on habitual and gross profligacy. Accus- 
tomed to govern the depraved and debased natives of Syria, a 
country where courage in man and virtue in woman had for cen- 
turies been unknown, Varus thought that he might gratify his 
licentious and rapacious passions with equal impunity among 
the high-minded sons and pure-spirited daughters of Germany. 
When the general of an army sets the example of outrages of 
this description, he is soon faithfully imitated by his officers, 
and surpassed by his still more brutal soldiery. The Romans 
now habitually indulged in those violations of the sanctity of 
the domestic shrine, and those insults upon honor and modesty, 
by which far less gallant spirits than those of our Teutonic an- 
cestors have often been maddened into insurrection.* 

* I cannot forbear quoting Macaulay's beautiful lines, where he describes 
how similar outrages in the early times of Rome goaded the plebeians to rise 
against the patricians : 

" Heap heavier still the fetters ; bar closer still the grate ; 
Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. 
But by the shades beneath us, and by the gods above, 
Add not unto your cruel hate your still more cruel love ! 

Then leave the poor plebeian his single tie to life — 
The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife ; 
The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vext soul endures ; 
The kiss in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours. 



124 VICTORY OF ARMMIUS OVER 

Arminius found among the other German chiefs many who 
sympathized with him in his indignation at their country's de- 
basement, and many whom private wrongs had stung yet more 
deeply. There was little difficulty in collecting bold leaders for 
an attack on the oppressors, and little fear of the population not 
rising readily at those leaders' call. But to declare open war 
against Rome, and to encounter Varus's army in a pitched bat- 
tle, would have been merely rushing upon certain destruction. 
Varus had three legions under him, a force which, after allow- 
ing for detachments, cannot be estimated at less than fourteen 
thousand Roman infantry. He had also eight or nine hundred 
Roman cavalry, and at least an equal number of horse and foot 
sent from the allied states, or raised among those provincials 
who had not received the Roman franchise. 

It was not merely the number, but the quality of this force 
that made it formidable ; and however contemptible Varus might 
be as a general, Arminius well knew how admirably the Roman 
armies were organized and officered, and how perfectly the le- 
gionaries understood every manoeuvre and every duty which the 
varying emergencies of a stricken field might require. Strata- 
gem was, therefore, indispensable ; and it was necessary to blind 
Varus to his schemes until a favorable opportunity should arrive 
for striking a decisive blow. 

For this purpose the German confederates frequented the 
headquarters of Varus, which seem to have been near the cen- 
tre of the modern country of Westphalia, where the Roman gen- 
eral conducted himself with all the arrogant security of the gov- 
ernor of a perfectly submissive province. There Varus gratified 
at once his vanity, his rhetorical taste, and his avarice, by hold- 
ing courts, to which he summoned the Germans for the settle- 
ment of all their disputes, while a bar of Roman advocates 
attended to argue the cases before the tribunal of the procon- 
sul, who did not omit the opportunity of exacting court fees 
and accepting bribes. Varus trusted implicitly to the respect 
which the Germans pretended to pay to his abilities as a judge, 
and to the interest which they affected to take in the forensic 
eloquence of their conquerors. Meanwhile a succession of heavy 

Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride; 

Still let the bridegroom's arms enfold an unpolluted bride. 

Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame, 

That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame ; 

Lest when our latest hope is fled ye taste of our despair, 

And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare." 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 125 

rains rendered the country more difficult for the operations of 
regular troops ; and Arminius, seeing that the infatuation of 
Varus was complete, secretly directed the tribes near the Weser 
and the Ems to take up arms in open revolt against the Romans. 
This was represented to Varus as an occasion which required his 
prompt attendance at the spot ; but he was kept in studied ig- 
norance of its being part of a concerted national rising ; and he 
still looked on Arminius as his submissive vassal, whose aid he 
might rely on in facilitating the march of his troops against the 
rebels, and in extinguishing the local disturbance. He therefore 
set his army in motion, and marched eastward in a line parallel 
to the course of the Lippe. For some distance his route lay 
along a level plain ; but on arriving at the tract between the 
curve of the upper part of that stream and the sources of the 
Ems, the country assumes a very different character ; and here, 
in the territory of the modern little principality of Lippe, it 
was that Arminius had fixed the scene of his enterprise. 

A woody and hilly region intervenes between the heads of the 
two rivers, and forms the watershed of their streams. This re- 
gion still retains the name (Teutoberger Wald — Teutobergiensis 
saltus) which it bore in the days of Arminius. The nature of 
the ground has probably also remained unaltered. The eastern 
part of it, round Detmoldt, the present capital of the principal- 
ity of Lippe, is described by a modern German scholar, Dr. 
Plate, as being " a table-land intersected by numerous deep and 
narrow valleys, which in some places form small plains, sur- 
rounded by steep mountains and rocks, and only accessible by 
narrow defiles. All the valleys are traversed by rapid streams, 
shallow in the dry season, but subject to sudden swellings in 
autumn and winter. The vast forests which cover the summits 
and slopes of the hills consist chiefly of oak ; there is little un- 
derwood, and both men and horse would move with ease in the 
forests if the ground were not broken by gulleys or rendered 
impracticable by fallen trees." This is the district to which 
Varus is supposed to have marched ; and Dr. Plate adds that 
"the names of several localities on and near that spot seem to 
indicate that a great battle had once been fought there. We 
find the names ' das Winnefeld ' (the field of victory), ' die Kno- 
chenbahn ' (the bone-lane), ' die Knochenleke ' (the bone-brook), 
1 der Mordkessel ' (the kettle of slaughter), and others." * 

* I am indebted for much valuable information on this subject to my friend 
Mr. Henrv Pearson. 



126 VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER 

Contrary to the usual strict principles of Roman discipline, 
Varus had suffered his army to be accompanied and impeded by 
an immense train of baggage-wagons and by a rabble of camp- 
followers, as if his troops had been merely changing their quar- 
ters in a friendly country. When the long array quitted the 
firm level ground and began to wind its way among the woods, 
the marshes, and the ravines, the difficulties of the march, even 
without the intervention of an armed foe, became fearfully ap- 
parent. In many places the soil, sodden with rain, was imprac- 
ticable for cavalry and even for infantry, until trees had been 
felled, and a rude causeway formed through the morass. 

The duties of the engineer were familiar to all who served in 
the Roman armies. But the crowd and confusion of the col- 
umns embarrassed the working parties of the soldiery, and in 
the midst of their toil and disorder the word was suddenly 
passed through their ranks that the rear-guard was attacked 
by the barbarians. Varus resolved on pressing forward ; but 
a heavy discharge of missiles from the woods on either flank 
taught him how serious was the peril, and he saw the best men 
falling round him without the opportunity of retaliation; for 
his light-armed auxiliaries, who were principally of Germanic 
race, now rapidly deserted, and it was impossible to deploy the 
legionaries on such broken ground for a charge against the 
enemy. Choosing one of the most open and firm spots which 
they could force their way to, the Romans halted for the night ; 
and, faithful to their national discipline and tactics, formed 
their camp amid the harassing attacks of the rapidly thronging 
foes, with the elaborate toil and systematic skill the traces of 
which are impressed permanently on the soil of so many Euro- 
pean countries, attesting the presence in the olden time of the 
imperial eagles. 

On the morrow the Romans renewed their march ; the veteran 
officers who served under Varus now probably directing the ope- 
rations, and hoping to find the Germans drawn up to meet them ; 
in which case they relied on their own superior discipline and 
tactics for such a victory as should reassure the supremacy of 
Rome. But Arminius was far too sage a commander to lead on 
his followers, with their unwieldy broadswords and inefficient 
defensive armor, against the Roman legionaries, fully armed 
with helmet, cuirass, greaves, and shield ; who were skilled to 
commence the conflict with a murderous volley of heavy jave- 
lins, hurled upon the foe when a few yards distant, and then, 
with their short cut-and-thrust swords, to hew their way through 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 127 

all opposition ; preserving the utmost steadiness and coolness, 
and obeying each word of command in the midst of strife and 
slaughter with the same precision and alertness as if upon pa- 
rade.* Arminius suffered the Romans to march out from their 
camp, to form first in line for action, and then in column for 
marching, without the show of opposition. For some distance 
Varus was allowed to move on, only harassed by slight skir- 
mishes, but struggling with difficulty through the broken ground ; 
the toil and distress of his men being aggravated by heavy tor- 
rents of rain, which burst upon the devoted legions as if the 
angry gods of Germany were pouring out the vials of their wrath 
upon the invaders. After some little time their van approached 
a ridge of high woody ground, which is one of the offshoots of 
the great Hercynian forest, and is situated between the modern 
villages of Driburg and Bielefeld. Arminius had caused bar- 
ricades of hewn trees to be formed here, so as to add to the 
natural difficulties of the passage. Fatigue and discouragement 
now began to betray themselves in the Roman ranks. Their 
line became less steady ; baggage-wagons were abandoned from 
the impossibility of forcing them along ; and, as this happened, 
many soldiers left their ranks and crowded round the wagons 
to secure the most valuable portions of their property ; each 
was busy about his own affairs, and purposely slow in hearing 
the word of command from his officers. Arminius now gave 
the signal for a general attack. The fierce shouts of the Ger- 
mans pealed through the gloom of the forests, and in thronging 
multitudes they assailed the flanks of the invaders, pouring in 
clouds of darts on the encumbered legionaries, as they strug- 
gled up the glens or floundered in the morasses, and watching 
every opportunity of charging through the intervals of the dis- 
jointed column, and so cutting off the communication between 
its several brigades. Arminius, with a chosen band of personal 
retainers round him, cheered on his countrymen by voice and 
example. He and his men aimed their weapons particularly 
at the horses of the Roman cavalry. The wounded animals, 
slipping about in the mire and their own blood, threw their 
riders, and plunged among the ranks of the legions, disordering 
all round them. Varus now ordered the troops to be counter- 
marched, in the hope of reaching the nearest Roman garrison 

* See Gibbon's description (vol. i., chap. 1) of the Roman legions in the 
time of Augustus; and see the description of Tacitus (Ann., lib. i.) of the 
subsequent battles between Caicina and Arminius. 



128 VICTORY OF ARMIN1US OVER 

on the Lippe.* But retreat now was as impracticable as ad- 
vance ; and the falling-back of the Romans only augmented the 
courage of their assailants, and caused fiercer and more frequent 
charges on the flanks of the disheartened army. The Roman 
officer who commanded the cavalry, Numonius Vala, rode off 
with his squadrons, in the vain hope of escaping by thus aban- 
doning his comrades. Unable to keep together, or force their 
way across the woods and swamps, the horsemen were over- 
powered in detail and slaughtered to the last man. The Roman 
infantry still held together and resisted, but more through the 
instinct of discipline and bravery than from any hope of suc- 
cess or escape. Varus, after being severely wounded in a charge 
of the Germans against his part of the column, committed sui- 
cide to avoid falling into the hands of those whom he had ex- 
asperated by his oppressions. One of the lieutenant-generals 
of the army fell fighting; the other surrendered to the enemy. 
But mercy to a fallen foe had never been a Roman virtue, and 
those among her legions who now laid down their arms in hope 
of quarter drank deep of the cup of suffering which Rome had 
held to the lips of many a brave but unfortunate enemy. The 
infuriated Germans slaughtered their oppressors with deliberate 
ferocity; and those prisoners who were not hewn to pieces on 
the spot were only preserved to perish by a more cruel death 
in cold blood. 

The bulk of the Roman army fought steadily and stubbornly, 
frequently repelling the masses of the assailants, but gradually 
losing the compactness of their array, and becoming weaker and 
weaker beneath the incessant shower of darts and the reiterated 
assaults of the vigorous and unencumbered Germans. At last, 
in a series of desperate attacks the column was pierced through 
and through, two of the eagles captured, and the Roman host, 
which on the y ester morning had marched forth in such pride 

* The circumstances of the early part of the battle which Arminius fought 
with Caecina six years afterwards, evidently resembled those of his battle with 
Varus, and the result was very near being the same : I have therefore adopt- 
ed part of the description which Tacitus gives (Ann., lib. i., c. 65) of the 
last-mentioned engagement : " Neque tamen Arminius, quamquam libero in- 
cursu, statim prorupit : sed, ut haesere cceno fossisque impedimenta, turbati 
circum milites; incertus signorum ordo; utque tali in tempore sibi quisque 
properus, et lentae adversum imperia aures, irrumpere Germanos jubet, clami- 
tans ' En Varus, et eodem iterum fato victae legiones !' Simul haec, et cum 
delectis scindit agmen, equisque maxime vulnera ingerit; illi sanguine suo 
et lubrico paludum lapsantes, excussis rectoribus, disjicere obvios, proterere 
jacentes." 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 12$ 

and might, now broken up into confused fragments, either fell 
fighting beneath the overpowering numbers of the enemy, or 
perished in the swamps and woods in unavailing efforts at flight. 
Few, very few, ever saw again the left bank of the Rhine. One 
body of brave veterans, arraying themselves in a ring on a little 
mound, beat off every charge of the Germans, and prolonged 
their honorable resistance to the close of that dreadful day. 
The traces of a feeble attempt at forming a ditch and mound 
attested in after-years the spot where the last of the Romans 
passed their night of suffering and despair. But on the mor- 
row this remnant also, worn out with hunger, wounds, and toil, 
was charged by the victorious Germans, and either massacred 
on the spot, or offered up in fearful rites at the altars of the 
deities of the old mythology of the North. 

A gorge in the mountain-ridge, through which runs the mod- 
ern road between Paderborn and Pyrmont, leads from the spot 
where the heat of the battle raged to the Extersteine, a cluster 
of bold and grotesque rocks of sandstone, near which is a small 
sheet of water, overshadowed by a grove of aged trees. Ac- 
cording to local tradition, this was one of the sacred groves 
of the ancient Germans, and it was here that the Roman cap- 
tives were slain in sacrifice by the victorious warriors of Armin- 
ius.* 

Never was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of 
an oppressed people more instantaneous and complete. Through- 
out Germany the Roman garrisons were assailed and cut off; 
and within a few weeks after Varus had fallen, the German 
soil was freed from the foot of an invader. 

At Rome, the tidings of the battle were received with an agony 
of terror, the descriptions of which we should deem exaggerated 
did they not come from Roman historians themselves. These 
passages in the Roman writers not only tell emphatically how 
great was the awe which the Romans felt of the prowess of the 
Germans, if their various tribes could be brought to reunite for 
a common purpose, f but also they reveal how weakened and 

* " Lucis propinquis barbarae avye, apud quas tribunos ac primorum ordi- 
num centuriones mactaverant." — Tacitus, Ann., lib. i., c. 61. 

f It is clear that the Romans followed the policy of fomenting dissensions 
and wars of the Germans among themselves. See the thirty-third section of 
the "Germania" of Tacitus, where he mentions the destruction of the Bruc- 
teri by the neighboring tribes : " Favore quodam erga nos deorum : nam ne 
spectaculo quidem proelii invidere : super lx. milia, non armis telisque Ro» 
manis, sed, quod magnificentius est, oblectationi oculisque ceciderunt. Ma- 
neat quaeso, duretque gentibus, si non amor nostri, at certe odium sui ; quando 



130 VICTORY OF ARMINIVS OVER 

debased the population of Italy had become. Dion Cassius 
says:* "Then Augustus, when he heard the calamity of Varus, 
rent his garments, and was in great affliction for the troops he 
had lost, and for terror respecting the Germans and the Gauls. 
And his chief alarm was, that he expected them to push on 
against Italy and Rome : and there remained no Roman youth 
fit for military duty, that were worth speaking of, and the al- 
lied populations that were at all serviceable had been wasted 
away. Yet he prepared for the emergency as well as his means 
allowed ; and when none of the citizens of military age were 
willing to enlist he made them cast lots, and punished by con- 
fiscation of goods and disfranchisement every fifth man among 
those under thirty-five, and every tenth man of those above that 
age. At last, when he found that not even thus could he make 
many come forward, he put some of them to death. So he 
made a conscription of discharged veterans and emancipated 
slaves, and, collecting as large a force as he could, sent it, under 
Tiberius, with all speed into Germany." 

Dion mentions also a number of terrific portents that were 
believed to have occurred at the time ; and the narration of 
which is not immaterial, as it shows the state of the public 
mind, when such things were so believed in and so interpreted. 
The summits of the Alps were said to have fallen, and three 
columns of fire to have blazed up from them. In the Campus 
Martius, the temple of the War-god, from whom the founder 
of Rome had sprung, was struck by a thunderbolt. The night- 
ly heavens glowed several times, as if on fire. Many comets 
blazed forth together; and fiery meteors, shaped like spears, 
had shot from the northern quarter of the sky down into the 
Roman camps. It was said, too, that a statue of Victory, which 
had stood at a place on the frontier, pointing the way towards 
Germany, had of its own accord turned round, and now pointed 
to Italy. These and other prodigies were believed by the mul- 
titude to accompany the slaughter of Varus's legions, and to 
manifest the anger of the gods against Rome. Augustus him- 
self was not free from superstition ; but on this occasion no su- 
pernatural terrors were needed to increase the alarm and grief 
that he felt ; and which made him, even for months after the 
news of the battle had arrived, often beat his head against the 
wall, and exclaim, " Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions !" 

urgentibus imperii fatis, nihil jam praestare fortuna majus potest, quam hos- 
tium discordiam." 
* Lib. lvi., sec. 23. 



THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS. 131 

We learn this from his biographer, Suetonius ; and, indeed, 
every ancient writer who alludes to the overthrow of Varus 
attests the importance of the blow against the Roman power, 
and the bitterness with which it was felt.* 

The Germans did not pursue their victory beyond their own 
territory. But that victory secured at once and forever the in- 
dependence of the Teutonic race. Rome sent, indeed, her le- 
gions again into Germany, to parade a temporary superiority ; 
but all hopes of permanent conquest were abandoned by Au- 
gustus and his successors. 

The blow which Arminius had struck never was forgotten. 
Roman fear disguised itself under the specious title of modera- 
tion ; and the Rhine became the acknowledged boundary of the 
two nations until the fifth century of our era, when the Germans 
became the assailants, and carved with their conquering swords 
the provinces of Imperial Rome into the kingdoms of modern 
Europe. 

ARMINIUS. 

I have said above that the great Cheruscan is more truly one 
of our national heroes than Caractacus is. It may be added 
that an Englishman is entitled to claim a closer degree of re- 
lationship with Arminius than can be claimed by any German 
of modern Germany. The proof of this depends on the proof 
of four facts : first, that the Cherusci were Old Saxons, or Sax- 
ons of the interior of Germany ; secondly, that the Anglo-Sax- 
ons, or Saxons of the coast of Germany, were more closely akin 
than other German tribes were to the Cheruscan Saxons ; third- 
ly, that the Old Saxons were almost exterminated by Charle- 
magne ; fourthly, that the Anglo-Saxons are our immediate 
ancestors. The last of these may be assumed as an axiom in 
English history. The proofs of the other three are partly phil- 
ological and partly historical. I have not space to go into 
them here, but they will be found in the early chapters of the 
great work of Dr. Robert Gordon Latham on the " English 
Language," and in the notes of his edition of the "Germania 
of Tacitus." It may be, however, here remarked that the pres- 
ent Saxons of Germany are of the High-Germanic division of 
the German race, whereas both the Anglo-Saxon and Old Saxon 
were of the Low Germanic. 

_ * Florus expresses its effect most pithily : " Hac clade factum est ut impe- 
rium quod in litore oceani non steterat, in ripa Rheni fluminis staret " (iv., 12). 



132 ARMINIUS:- 

Being thus the nearest heirs of the glory of Arminius, we may 
fairly devote more attention to his career than, in such a work 
as the present, could be allowed to any individual leader. And 
it is interesting to trace how far his fame survived during the 
Middle Ages, both among the Germans of the Continent and 
among ourselves. 

It seems probable that the jealousy with which Maraboduus, 
the king of the Suevi and Marcomanni, regarded Arminius, and 
which ultimately broke out into open hostilities between those 
German tribes and the Cherusci, prevented Arminius from lead- 
ing the confederate Germans to attack Italy after his first vic- 
tory. Perhaps he may have had the rare moderation of being 
content with the liberation of his country, without seeking to 
retaliate on her former oppressors. When Tiberius marched 
into Germany in the year 10, Arminius was too cautious to at- 
tack him on ground favorable to the legions, and Tiberius was 
too skilful to entangle his troops in difficult parts of the coun- 
try. His march and countermarch were as unresisted as they 
were unproductive. A few years later, when a dangerous re- 
volt of the Roman legions near the frontier caused their gen- 
erals to find them active employment by leading them into the 
interior of Germany, we find Arminius again energetic in his 
country's defence. The old quarrel between him and his fa- 
ther-in-law, Segestes, had broken out afresh. Segestes now 
called in the aid of the Roman general, Germanicus, to whom 
he surrendered himself ; and by his contrivance his daughter 
Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, also came into the hands of the 
Romans, being far advanced in pregnancy. She showed, as Taci- 
tus relates,* more of the spirit of her husband than of her father 
— a spirit that could not be subdued into tears or supplications. 
She was sent to Ravenna, and there gave birth to a son, whose 
life we find, from an allusion in Tacitus, to have been eventful 
and unhappy ; but the part of the great historian's work which 
narrated his fate has perished, and we only know from another 
quarter that the son of Arminius was, at the age of four years, 
led captive in a triumphal pageant along the streets of Rome. 

The high spirit of Arminius was goaded almost into frenzy 
by these bereavements. The fate of his wife, thus torn from 
him, and of his babe doomed to bondage even before its birth, 
inflamed the eloquent invectives with which he roused his 
countrymen against the home traitors, and against their in- 

* " Annals," i., 57. 



ARMINIUS. 133 

vaders, who thus made war upon women and children. Ger- 
manicus had marched his army to the place where Varus had 
perished, and had there paid funeral honors to the ghastly 
relics of his predecessor's legions that he found heaped around 
him.* Arminius lured him to advance a little farther into the 
country, and then assailed him, and fought a battle, which, by 
the Roman accounts, was a drawn one. The effect of it was 
to make Germanicus resolve on retreating to the Rhine. He 
himself, with part of his troops, embarked in some vessels on 
the Ems, and returned by that river, and then by sea ; but 
part of his forces were intrusted to a Roman general, named 
Csecina, to lead them back by land to the Rhine. Arminius 
followed this division on its march, and fought several bat- 
tles with it, in which he inflicted heavy loss on the Romans, 
captured the greater part of their baggage, and would have 
destroyed them completely, had not his skilful system of 
operations been finally thwarted by the haste of Inguiomerus, 
a confederate German chief, who insisted on assaulting the 
Romans in their camp, instead of waiting till they were en- 
tangled in the difficulties of the country, and assailing their 
columns on the march. 

In the following year the Romans were inactive ; but in the 
year afterwards Germanicus led a fresh invasion. He placed 
his army on ship-board, and sailed to the mouth of the Ems, 
where he disembarked, and marched to the Weser, where he 
encamped, probably in the neighborhood of Minden. Arminius 
had collected his army on the other side of the river ; and a 
scene occurred, which is powerfully told by Tacitus, and which 
is the subject of a beautiful poem by Praed. It has been al- 
ready mentioned that the brother of Arminius, like himself, 
had been trained up, while young, to serve in the Roman 
armies ; but, unlike Arminius, he not only refused to quit the 
Roman service for that of his country, but fought against his 
country with the legions of Germanicus. He had assumed the 
Roman name of Flavius, and had gained considerable distinc- 
tion in the Roman service, in which he had lost an eye from a 
wound in battle. When the Roman outposts approached the 
river Weser, Arminius called out to them from the opposite 
bank, and expressed a wish to see his brother. Flavius stepped 
forward, and Arminius ordered his own followers to retire, and 

* In the Museum of Rhenish antiquities at Bonn there is a Roman sepul- 
chral monument, the inscription on which records that it was erected to the 
memory of M. Coelius, who fell " Bello Variano." 



134 



ARMINIUS. 



requested that the archers should be removed from the Roman 
bank of the river. This was done : and the brothers, who ap- 
parently had not seen each other for some years, began a 
conversation from the opposite sides of the stream, in which 
Arminius questioned his brother respecting the loss of his eye, 
and what battle it had been lost in, and what reward he had 
received for his wound. Flavius told him how the eye was de- 
stroyed, and mentioned the increased pay that he had on ac- 
count of its loss, and showed the collar and other military 
decorations that had been given him. Arminius mocked at 
these as badges of slavery ; and then each began to try to win 
the other over — Flavius boasting the power of Rome, and her 
generosity to the submissive ; Arminius appealing to him in 
the name of their country's gods, of the mother that had borne 
them, and by the holy names of fatherland and freedom, not 
to prefer being the betrayer to being the champion of his 
country. They soon proceeded to mutual taunts and menaces, 
and Flavius called aloud for his horse and his arms, that he 
might dash across the river and attack his brother ; nor would 
he have been checked from doing so, had not the Roman gen- 
eral, Stertinius, run up to him, and forcibly detained him. 
Arminius stood on the other bank, threatening the renegade, 
and defying him to battle. 

I shall not be thought to need apology for quoting here the 
stanzas in which Praed has described this scene — a scene 
among the most affecting, as well as the most striking, that 
history supplies. It makes us reflect on the desolate position 
of Arminius, with his wife and child captives in the enemy's 
hands, and with his brother a renegade in arms against him. 
The great liberator of our German race stood there, with every 
source of human happiness denied him, except the conscious- 
ness of doing his duty to his country. 

" Back, back ! he fears not foaming flood 

Who fears not steel-clad line : 
No warrior thou of German blood, 

No brother thou of mine. 
Go, earn Rome's chain to load thy neck, 

Her gems to deck thy hilt; 
And blazon honor's hapless wreck 

With all the gauds of guilt! 

"But wouldst thou have me share the prey? 
By all that I have done — 
The Varian bones that day by day 
Lie whitening in the sun, 



ARMINIUS. 135 

The legion's trampled panoply, 

The eagle's shattered wing, — 
I would not be for earth or sky 

So scorned and mean a thing. 

;< Ho ! call me here the wizard, boy, 

Of dark and subtle skill, 
To agonize but not destroy, 

To curse, but not to kill. 
When swords are out, and shriek and shout 

Leave little room for prayer, 
No fetter on man's arm or heart 

Hangs half so heavy there. 

" I curse him by the gifts the land 

Hath won from him and Rome— - 
The riving axe, the wasting brand, 

Rent forest, blazing home. 
I curse him by our country's gods, 

The terrible, the dark, 
The breakers of the Roman rods, 

The smiters of the bark. 

" misery, that such a ban 

On such a brow should be ! 
Why comes he not in battle's van 

His country's chief to be ? — 
To stand a comrade by my side, 

The sharer of my fame, 
And worthy of a brother's pride 

And of a brother's name ? 

" But it is past ! — where heroes press 

And cowards bend the knee 
Arminius is not brotherless ; 

His brethren are the free. 
They come around : one hour, and light 

Will fade from turf and tide, 
Then onward, onward to the fight 

With darkness for our guide. 

" To-night, to-night, when we shall meet 

In combat face to face, 
Then only would Arminius greet 

The renegade's embrace. 
The canker of Rome's guilt shall be 

Upon his dying name ; 
And as he lived in slavery, 

So shall he fall in shame." 

On the day after the Romans had reached the Weser, Ger- 
manicus led his army across that river, and a partial encounter 
took place, in which Arminius was successful. But on the 



130 ARM1N1US. 

succeeding day a general action was fought, in which Arminius 
was severely wounded, and the German infantry routed with 
heavy loss. The horsemen of the two armies encountered with- 
out either party gaining the advantage. But the Roman army 
remained master of the ground, and claimed a complete victory, 
Germanicus erected a trophy in the field, with a vaunting in- 
scription, that the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe 
had been thoroughly conquered by his army. But that army 
speedily made a final retreat to the left bank of the Rhine ; 
nor was the effect of their campaign more durable than their 
trophy. The sarcasm with which Tacitus speaks of certain 
other triumphs of Roman generals over Germans may apply 
to the pageant which Germanicus celebrated on his return to 
Rome from his command of the Roman army of the Rhine. 
The Germans were " triumphati potius quam victV 

After the Romans had abandoned their attempts on Ger- 
many, we find Arminius engaged in hostilities with Maroboduus, 
the king of the Suevi and Marcomanni, who was endeavoring 
to bring the other German tribes into a state of dependency on 
him. Arminius was at the head of the Germans who took up 
arms against this home invader of their liberties. After some 
minor engagements, a pitched battle was fought between the 
two confederacies, a.d. 16, in which the loss on each side was 
equal ; but Maroboduus confessed the ascendency of his an- 
tagonist by avoiding a renewal of the engagement, and by im- 
ploring the intervention of the Romans in his defence. The 
younger Drusus then commanded the Roman legions in the 
province of Illyricum, and by his mediation a peace was con- 
cluded between Arminius and Maroboduus, by the terms of 
which it is evident that the latter must have renounced his 
ambitious schemes against the freedom of the other German 
tribes. 

Arminius did not long survive this second war of indepen- 
dence, which he successfully waged for his country. He was 
assassinated in the thirty-seventh year of his age by some of 
his own kinsmen, who conspired against him. Tacitus says 
that this happened while he was engaged in a civil war, which 
had been caused by his attempts to make himself king over 
his countrymen. It is far more probable (as one of the best 
biographers* of Arminius has observed) that Tacitus mis- 

* Dr. Plate, in Biographical Dictionary commenced by the Society for the 
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 



ARMINIUS. ]37 

understood an attempt of Arminius to extend his influence as 
elective war-chieftain of the Cherusci and other tribes for an 
attempt to obtain the royal dignity. When we remember that 
his father-in-law and his brother were renegades, we can well 
understand that a party among his kinsmen may have been bit- 
terly hostile to him, and have opposed his authority with the 
tribe by open violence, and, when that seemed ineffectual, by 
secret assassination. 

Arminius left a name which the historians of the nation 
against which he combated so long and so gloriously have 
delighted to honor. It is from the most indisputable source, 
from the lips of enemies, that we know his exploits.* His 
countrymen made history, but did not write it. But his mem- 
ory lived among them in the lays of their bards, who recorded 

" The deeds he did, the fields he won, 
The freedom he restored." 

Tacitus, many years after the death of Arminius, says of him, 
"Canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes." As time passed on, 
the gratitude of ancient Germany to her great deliverer grew 
into adoration, and divine honors were paid for centuries to 
Arminius by every tribe of the Low-Germanic division of the 
Teutonic races. The Irmin-sul, or the column of Herman, near 
Eresburg, the modern Stadtberg, was the chosen object of 
worship to the descendants of the Cherusci, the Old Saxons, 
and in defence of which they fought most desperately against 
Charlemagne and his Christianized Franks. " Irmin, in the 
cloudy Olympus of Teutonic belief, appears as a king and a 
warrior ; and the pillar, the ' Irmin-sul,' bearing the statue, and 
considered as the symbol of the deity, was the Palladium of 
the Saxon nation, until the temple of Eresburg was destroyed 
by Charlemagne, and the column itself transferred to the mon- 
astery of Corbey, where, perhaps, a portion of the rude rock idol 
yet remains, covered by the ornaments of the Gothic era." f 

Traces of the worship of Arminius are to be found among 
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, after their settlements in this isl- 
and. One of the four great highways was held to be under 
the protection of the deity, and was called the " Irmin-street" 
The name Arminius is, of course, the mere Latinized form of 
" Herman," the name by which the hero and the deity were 

* See Tacitus, Ann., lib. ii., sec. 88 ; Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., sec. 118. 
f " Palgrave on the English Commonwealth," vol. ii., p. 140. 



138 ARMINIUS. 

known by every man of Low-German blood, on either side of 
the German Sea. It means, etymologically, the " War-man," 
the "man of hosts." No other explanation of the worship of 
the " Irmin-sul," and of the name of the " Irmin-street," is so 
satisfactory as that which connects them with the deified Ar- 
minius. We know for certain of the existence of other col- 
umns of an analogous character. Thus, there was the Roland- 
seule in North Germany ; there was a Thor-seule in Sweden, 
and (what is more important) there was an Athelstan-seule in 
Saxon England.* 

There is at the present moment a song respecting the Irmin- 
sul current in the bishopric of Minden, one version of which 
might seem only to refer to Charlemagne having pulled down 
the Irmin-sul : 

" Herman, sla dermen, 
Sla pipen, sla trummen, 
De Kaiser will kummen, 
Met hamer un stangen, 
Will Herman uphangen." 

But there is another version, which probably is the oldest, and 
which clearly refers to the great Arminius: 

" Un Herman slaug dermen ; 
Slaug pipen, slaug trummen ; 
De fursten sind kammen, 
Met all eren-mannen 
Hebt Varus uphangen." f 

About ten centuries and a half after the demolition of the 
Irmin-sul, and nearly eighteen after the death of Arminius, the 
modern Germans conceived the idea of rendering tardy hom- 
age to their great hero ; and, accordingly, some eight or ten 
years ago, a general subscription was organized in Germany 
for the purpose of erecting, on the Osning — a conical moun- 
tain, which forms the highest summit of the Teutoberger 
Wald, and is eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea 
a colossal bronze statue of Arminius. The statue was de- 
signed by Bandel. The hero was to stand uplifting a sword 
in his right hand, and looking towards the Rhine. The height 
of the statue was to be eighty feet from the base to the point 

* See Lappenburg's "Anglo-Saxons," p. 376. For nearly all the philo- 
logical and ethnographical facts respecting Arminius, I am indebted to Dr. 
R. G. Latham. 

f See Grimm, " Deutsche Mythologie," p. 329. 



ARMINIUS. 139 

of the sword, and was to stand on a circular Gothic temple, 
ninety feet high, and supported by oak trees as columns. The 
mountain, where it was to be erected, is wild and stern, and 
overlooks the scene of the battle. It was calculated that the 
statue would be clearly visible at a distance of sixty miles. The 
temple is nearly finished, and the statue itself has been cast 
at the copper -works at Lemgo. But there, through want of 
funds to set it up, it has lain for some years, in disjointed 
fragments, exposed to the mutilating homage of relic-seeking 
travellers. The idea of honoring a hero who belongs to all 
Germany is not one which the present rulers of that divided 
country have any wish to encourage ; and the statue may long 
continue to lie there, and present too true a type of the con- 
dition of Germany herself.* 

Surely this is an occasion in which Englishmen might well 
prove, by acts as well as words, that we also rank Arminius 
among our heroes. 

I have quoted the noble stanzas of one of our modern Eng- 
lish poets on Arminius, and I will conclude this memoir with 
one of the odes of the great poet of modern Germany, Klop- 
stock, on the victory to which we owe our freedom, and Ar- 
minius mainly owes his fame. Klopstock calls it the " Battle 
of Winfield." The epithet of "Sister of Cannae" shows that 
Klopstock followed some chronologers, according to whom 
Varus was defeated on the anniversary of the day on which 
Paulus and Varro were defeated by Hannibal. 



SONG OF TRIUMPH AFTER THE VICTORY OF HERRMAN, THE 
DELIVERER OF GERMANY FROM THE ROMANS. 

(FROM KLOPSTOCK'S " HERRMAN UND DIE FURSTEN.") 

Supposed to be sung by a Choiiis of Bards. 

A CHORUS. 

Sister of Cannae !f Winfield'sJ fight! 
We saw thee with thy streaming bloody hair, 
With fiery eye, bright with the world's despair, 
Sweep by Walhalla's bards from out our sight. 

* On the subject of this statue I must repeat an acknowledgment of my 
obligations to my friend Mr. Henry Pearson. 

| The battle of Cannse, b.c. 216 — Hannibal's victory over the Romans. 
\ Winfield — the probable site of the " Ilerrmansschlacht." See supra. 



s 

— St . 

. . s ike 

N struck: ..-».;.■> braktw 

— >o s-.v.i '.':e < 

I QMMSK& 

Li v. riTi 

thorn wV..- Jtt them slaves — 

fat thim.' ... no! gltlttl 

— ". raa 

TWO nxR-rss. 

— . - v.o to Home. 

U. ;e> trail 

IV heir cheek was pill : 
a m e s s en ger* to Ko:no 

- K«U the /••;:v.;.'. ■ sate — 
■vmnmi Gwor ^ttjfinhtt sate, 
v tilled up winem ps tilled they up 

For him 5 , Jove of all their state. 

> of 1 ydia hushed before their roSes, 
Before — :rs — the "Highest" sprung — 

V * nst the niArble pillars, wrung 

Bj Um ■•v.s. striking htS brow, and thrice 

C . -.'Aguish. •" Y.r. H \ ■>■ - 

G - '■ - 

And now Um WOllQVwfcle conquerors shrunk and feared 
Pot ind home 

I raise ; and 'mongst those false to Rome 

The ohv.'.hdot rolled/ and still they shrunk and feared; 

" For she hor faoo hath turned. 
Tho victor goddess," cried those cowards (for are 
Be it!) " from Koine and Komans. and her day- 
Is dooe '" And still ho inournod, 
And cried aloud in anguish, "Varus! Varus! 
Give back my legions. Varus !" J 

* Augustus WAS worshipped as a deity in his lifetime. 
| s pp. 129, LWt 

( 1 Iiavo tAkon this translation from an Anonymous writer in PVwur, two 
Tears ajra 



SYNOPSIS OF a i .. n 



KYNOI'HJS OK EVENTS BETWEEN ARMINIU VICTORY OVEB 
fAKUfl AND THE BATTUE 01 CHALOl 

a.i>. 4:5. The Romans commence the conquest of Britain, 
Claudia* being then Emperor of Rome. The population of this 
island was then Celtic, in about forty years all the tribes south 
of the Clyde were su hd ucfj, and their I;mi<i made a Roman prov- 
ince. 

r>8 to 80, Successful campaigns of the Roman general Cor- 
bola against the Partbians. 

64. Pint persecution of the Christians at Rome under Nero. 

c>H to 7o. Civil wars in the Roman world. The empei 
Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitelline cut off successively by violent 
deaths. Vesps ian becomes emperor. 

70. Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans under Titus. 

63. Futile attack of Domitian on the Germans. 

Hi). Beginning of the wars between the Romans and the 
Dacians. 

98 to 117. Trajan emperor of Rome. Dndei him the em- 
pire acquires its greatest territorial extent by bis conquesl 
Dacia and in the Bast. His successor, Hadrian, abandons the 
provinces beyond the Euphrates, which Trajan had conquered. 

186 to 180. Bra of the Antonines. 

H>7 to 17o\ A long ami desperate- war between Rome and a 
great confederacy of the German nations. Marcus Antoninus 
at last succeeds in repelling them. 

I'.i'z to i-*7. Civil wars throughout the Roman world. Severus 
becomes emperor* He relaxes the discipline of the soldiers. 

After his death in 811, the series of military insurrections, civil 
wars, and murders of emperors rccommetr 

39di Artaxcrxes (Ardishecr) overthrows the Parthian and re- 
stores the Persian kingdom in Asia. He attacks the Roman 
possessions in the Bast. 

250. The Goths invade the Roman provinces. The emperor 

Decius is defeated and slain by them. 

263 to 260. The Franks and Alemanni invade Gaul, Spain, and 
Africa. The Goths attach Asia Minor and Greece. The Per- 
sians conquer Armenia. Their ki no;, Sapor, defeats the Roman 
emperor Valerian, and takes him prisoner. General distrei 

the Roman empire. 

208 to 288, The emperors Claudius, Aurelian, TacitUS, Pro- 



142 SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS. 

bus, and Carus defeat the various enemies of Rome, and restore 
order in the Roman state. 

285. Diocletian divides and reorganizes the Roman empire. 
After his abdication in 305 a fresh series of civil wars and con- 
fusion ensues. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, reunites 
the empire in 324. 

330. Constantine makes Constantinople the seat of empire in- 
stead of Rome. 

363. The emperor Julian is killed in action against the Per- 
sians. 

364 to 375. The empire is again divided, Yalentinian being 
emperor of the West, and Valens of the East. Valentinian 
repulses the Alemanni, and other German invaders from Gaul. 
Splendor of the Gothic kingdom under Hermanric, north of the 
Danube. 

375 to 395. The Huns attack the Goths, who implore the pro- 
tection of the Roman emperor of the East. The Goths are al- 
lowed to pass the Danube, and to settle in the Roman provinces. 
A war soon breaks out between them and the Romans, and the 
emperor Valens and his army are destroyed by them. They 
ravage the Roman territories. The emperor Theodosius reduces 
them to submission. They retain settlements in Thrace and 
Asia Minor. 

395. Final division of the Roman empire between Arcadius 
and Honorius, the two sons of Theodosius. The Goths revolt, 
and under Alaric attack various parts of both the Roman em- 
pires. 

410. Alaric takes the city of Rome. 

412. The Goths march into Gaul, and in 414 into Spain, which 
had been already invaded by hosts of Vandals, Suevi, Alani, and 
other Germanic nations. Britain is formally abandoned by the 
Roman emperor of the West. 

428. Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquers the Roman prov- 
ince of North Africa. 

441. The Huns attack the Eastern empire. 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 143 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATTLE OF CHALONS, A.D. 451. 

"The discomfiture of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new anti- 
Christian dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal power of Rome, at the end 
of the term of twelve hundred years, to which its duration had been limited 
by the forebodings of the heathen." — Herbert. 

A broad expanse of plains, the Campi Catalaunici of the an- 
cients, spreads far and wide around the city of Chalons, in the 
northeast of France. The long rows of poplars through which 
the river Marne winds its way, and a few thinly scattered vil- 
lages, are almost the only objects that vary the monotonous as- 
pect of the greater part of this region. But about five miles 
from Chalons, near the little hamlets of Chape and Cuperly, 
the ground is indented and heaped up in ranges of grassy 
mounds and trenches, which attest the work of man's hand in 
ages past; and which, to the practised eye, demonstrate that this 
quiet spot has once been the fortified position of a huge military 
host. 

Local tradition gives to these ancient earthworks the name of 
Attila's Camp. Nor is there any reason to question the correct- 
ness of the title, or to doubt that behind these very ramparts it 
was that, 1400 years ago, the most powerful heathen king that 
ever ruled in Europe mustered the remnants of his vast army, 
which had striven on these plains against the Christian soldiery 
of Toulouse and Rome. Here it was that Attila prepared to 
resist to the death his victors in the field ; and here he heaped 
up the treasures of his camp in one vast pile, which was to be 
his funeral pyre should his camp be stormed. It was here that 
the Gothic and Italian forces watched, but dared not assail their 
enemy in his despair, after that great and terrible day of battle, 
when 

"The sound 
Of conflict was o'erpast, the shout of all 
Whom earth could send from her remotest bounds, 
Heathen or faithful; — from thy hundred mouths, 
That feed the Caspian with Riphean snows, 



14 4 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

Huge Volga ! from famed Hypanis, which once 
Cradled the Hun ; from all the countless realms 
Between Imaus and that utmost strand 
Where columns of Herculean rock confront 
The blown Atlantic ; Roman, Goth, and Hun, 
And Scythian strength of chivalry, that tread 
The cold Codanian shore, or what far lands 
Inhospitable drink Cimmerian floods, 
Franks, Saxons, Suevic, and Sarmatian chiefs, 
And who from green Armorica or Spain 
Flocked to the work of death."* 

The victory which the Roman general Aetius, with his Gothic 
allies, had then gained over the Huns was the last victory of 
Imperial Rome. But among the long Fasti of her triumphs, few 
can be found that, for their importance and ultimate benefit to 
mankind, are comparable with this expiring effort of her arms. 
It did not, indeed, open to her any new career of conquest ; it 
did not consolidate the relics of her power ; it did not turn the 
rapid ebb of her fortunes. The mission of Imperial Rome was, 
in truth, already accomplished. She had received and transmit- 
ted through her once ample dominion the civilization of Greece. 
She had broken up the barriers of narrow nationalities among 
the various states and tribes that dwelt around the coast of the 
Mediterranean. She had fused these and many other races into 
one organized empire, bound together by a community of laws, 
of government, and institutions. Under the shelter of her full 
power the True Faith had arisen in the earth, and during the 
years of her decline it had been nourished to maturity, and had 
overspread all the provinces that ever obeyed her sway.j- For 
no beneficial purpose to mankind could the dominion of the 
seven-hilled city have been restored or prolonged. But it was 
all-important to mankind what nations should divide among 
them Rome's rich inheritance of empire : whether the Germanic 
and Gothic warriors should form states and kingdoms out of the 
fragments of her dominions, and become the free members of 
the commonwealth of Christian Europe ; or whether pagan sav- 
ages from the wilds of Central Asia should crush the relics of 
classic civilization, and the early institutions of the Christian- 
ized Germans, in one hopeless chaos of barbaric conquest. The 
Christian Visigoths of King Theodoric fought and triumphed 
at Chalons side by side with the legions of Aetius. Their joint 

* Herbert's " Attila," book i., line 13. 

f See the Introduction to Ranke's " History of the Popes," 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 145 

victory over the Hunnish host not only rescued for a time from 
destruction the old age of Rome, but preserved for centuries of 
power and glory the Germanic element in the civilization of 
modern Europe. 

In order to estimate the full importance to mankind of the 
battle of Chalons, we must keep steadily in mind who and what 
the Germans were, and the important distinctions between them 
and the numerous other races that assailed the Roman empire ; 
and it is to be understood that the Gothic and the Scandinavian 
nations are included in the German race. Now, " in two re- 
markable traits the Germans differed from the Sarmatic as well 
as from the Slavic nations, and, indeed, from all those other 
races to whom the Greeks and Romans gave the designation of 
barbarians. I allude to their personal freedom and regards for 
the rights of men ; secondly, to the respect paid by them to the 
female sex, and the chastity for which the latter were celebrated 
among the people of the North. These were the foundations 
of that probity of character, self-respect, and purity of manners 
which may be traced among the Germans and Goths even dur- 
ing pagan times, and which, when their sentiments were en- 
lightened by Christianity, brought out those splendid traits of 
character which distinguished the age of chivalry and romance." * 
What the intermixture of the German stock with the classic, at 
the fall of the Western Empire, has done for mankind may be 
best felt by watching, with Arnold, over how large a portion of 
the earth the influence of the German element is now extended. 

" It affects, more or less, the whole west of Europe, from the 
head of the Gulf of Bothnia to the most southern promontory of 
Sicily, from the Oder and the Adriatic to the Hebrides and to 
Lisbon. It is true that the language spoken over a large por- 
tion of this space is not predominantly German ; but even in 
France, and Italy, and Spain, the influence of the Franks, Bur- 
gundians, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Lombards, while it has 
colored even the language, has in blood and institutions left its 
mark legibly and indelibly. Germany, the Low Countries, 
Switzerland for the most part, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 
and our own islands, are all in language, in blood, and in insti- 
tutions, German most decidedly. But all South America is 
peopled with Spaniards and Portuguese ; all North America, and 
all Australia, with Englishmen. I say nothing of the prospects 

♦See Prichard's "Researches into the Physical History of Mankind," vol. 
III., p. 423. 



146 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

and influence of the German race in Africa and in India : it is 
enough to say that half of Europe, and all America and Aus- 
tralia, are German, more or less completely, in race, in language, 
or in institutions, or in all." * 

By the middle of the fifth century, Germanic nations had set- 
tled themselves in many of the fairest regions of the Roman em- 
pire, had imposed their yoke on the provincials, and had un- 
dergone, to a considerable extent, that moral conquest which 
the arts and refinements of the vanquished in arms have so 
often achieved over the rough victor. The Visigoths held the 
north of Spain and Gaul south of the Loire. Franks, Alemanni, 
Alans, and Burgundians had established themselves in other 
Gallic provinces, and the Suevi were masters of a large southern 
portion of the Spanish peninsula. A king of the Vandals 
reigned in North Africa, and the Ostrogoths had firmly planted 
themselves in the provinces north of Italy. Of these powers and 
principalities, that of the Visigoths, under their king Theodoric, 
son of Alaric, was by far the first in power and in civilization. 

The pressure of the Huns upon Europe had first been felt in 
the fourth century of our era. They had long been formidable 
to the Chinese empire ; but the ascendency in arms which 
another nomadic tribe of Central Asia, the Sienpi, gained over 
them, drove the Huns from their Chinese conquests westward ; 
and this movement once being communicated to the whole chain 
of barbaric nations that dwelt northward of the Black Sea and 
the Roman empire, tribe after tribe of savage warriors broke in 
upon the barriers of civilized Europe, " velut unda supervenit 
undam." The Huns crossed the Tanais into Europe in 375, and 
rapidly reduced to subjection the Alans, the Ostrogoths, and 
other tribes that were then dwelling along the course of the 
Danube. The armies of the Roman emperor that tried to check 
their progress were cut to pieces by them ; and Pannonia and 
other provinces south of the Danube were speedily occupied by 
the victorious cavalry of these new invaders. Not merely the 
degenerate Romans, but the bold and hardy warriors of Ger- 
many and Scandinavia were appalled at the numbers, the feroc- 
ity, the ghastly appearance, and the lightning-like rapidity of 
the Huns. Strange and loathsome legends were coined and 
credited which attributed their origin to the union of 

" Secret, black, and midnight hags " 

with the evil spirits of the wilderness. 

* Arnold's " Lectures on Modern History," p. 36, 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 147 

Tribe after tribe, and city after city, fell before them. Then 
came a pause in their career of conquest in Southwestern Eu- 
rope, caused probably by dissensions among their chiefs, and 
also by their arms being employed in attacks upon the Scandi- 
navian nations. But when Attila (or Atzel, as he is called in 
the Hungarian language) became their ruler, the torrent of their 
arms was directed with augmented terrors upon the west and 
the south ; and their myriads marched beneath the guidance of 
one master-mind to the overthrow both of the new and the old 
powers of the earth. 

Recent events have thrown such a strong interest over every- 
thing connected with the Hungarian name that even the ter- 
rible name of Attila now impresses us the more vividly through 
our sympathizing admiration of the exploits of those who claim 
to be descended from his warriors, and " ambitiously insert the 
name of Attila among their native kings." The authenticity of 
this martial genealogy is denied by some writers, and questioned 
by more. But it is at least certain that the Magyars of Arpad, 
who are the immediate ancestors of the bulk of the modern 
Hungarians, and who conquered the country which bears the 
name of Hungary in a.d. 889, were of the same stock of man- 
kind as were the Huns of Attila, even if they did not belong to 
the same subdivision of that stock. Nor is there any improba- 
bility in the tradition, that after Attila's death many of his 
warriors remained in Hungary, and that their descendants after- 
wards joined the Huns of Arpad in their career of conquest. It 
is certain that Attila made Hungary the seat of his empire. 
It seems also susceptible of clear proof that the territory was 
then called Hungvar, and Attila's soldiers Hungvari. Both the 
Huns of Attila and those of Arpad came from the family of 
nomadic nations whose primitive regions were those vast wil- 
dernesses of High Asia which are included between the Altaic 
and the Himalayan mountain-chains. The inroads of these 
tribes upon the lower regions of Asia and into Europe have 
caused many of the most remarkable revolutions in the history 
of the world. There is every reason to believe that swarms of 
these nations made their way into distant parts of the earth, at 
periods long before the date of the Scythian invasion of Asia, 
which is the earliest inroad of the nomadic race that history re- 
cords. The first, as far as we can conjecture in respect to the 
time of their descent, were the Finnish and Ugrian tribes, who 
appear to have come down from the Altaic border of High Asia 
towards the northwest, in which direction they advanced to the 



148 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

UraHan mountains. There they established themselves ; and that 
mountain-chain, with its valleys and pasture-lands, became to 
them a new country, whence they sent out colonies on every 
side. But the Ugrian colony which under Arpad occupied Hun- 
gary, and became the ancestors of the bulk of the present 
Hungarian nation, did not quit their settlements on the TJralian 
mountains till a very late period — not until four centuries after 
the time when Attila led from the primary seats of the nomadic 
races in High Asia the host with which he advanced into the 
heart of France.* That host was Turkish ; but closely allied in 
origin, language, and habits with the Finno-Ugrian settlers on 
the Ural. 

Attila's fame has not come down to us through the partial 
and suspicious medium of chroniclers and poets of his own race. 
It is not from Hunnish authorities that we learn the extent of 
his might: it is from his enemies, from the literature and the 
legends of the nations whom he afflicted with his arms, that we 
draw the unquestionable evidence of his greatness. Besides the 
express narratives of Byzantine, Latin, and Gothic writers, we 
have the strongest proof of the stern reality of Attila's con- 
quests in the extent to which he and his Huns have been the 
themes of the earliest German and Scandinavian lays. Wild as 
many of these legends are, they bear concurrent and certain tes- 
timony to the awe with which the memory of Attila was re- 
garded by the bold warriors who composed and delighted in 
them. Attila's exploits, and the wonders of his unearthly steed 
and magic sword, repeatedly occur in the Sagas of Norway and 
Iceland ; and the celebrated Nibelungenlied, the most ancient 
of Germanic poetry, is full of them. There Etsel, or Attila, is 
described as the wearer of twelve mighty crowns, and as promis- 
ing to his bride the lands of thirty kings, whom his irresistible 
sword has subdued. He is, in fact, the hero of the latter part 
of this remarkable poem ; and it is at his capital city, Etselen- 
burgh, which evidently corresponds to the modern Buda, that 
much of its action takes place. 

When we turn from the legendary to the historic Attila, we 
see clearly that he was not one of the vulgar herd of barbaric 
conquerors. Consummate military skill may be traced in his 
campaigns ; and he relied far less on the brute force of armies 
for the aggrandizement of his empire than on the unbounded 
influence over the affections of friends and the fears of foes 

\ *See Prichard's " Researches into the Physical History of Mankind." 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 149 

which his genius enabled him to acquire. Austerely sober in 
his private life ; severely just on the judgment-seat ; conspicuous 
among a nation of warriors for hardihood, strength, and skill in 
every martial exercise ; grave and deliberate in counsel, but rapid 
and remorseless in execution — he gave safety and security to all 
who were under his dominion, while he waged a warfare of ex- 
termination against all who opposed or sought to escape from it. 
He watched the national passions, the prejudices, the creeds, 
and the superstitions of the varied nations over which he ruled 
and of those which he sought to reduce beneath his sway : all 
these feelings he had the skill to turn to his own account. His 
own warriors believed him to be the inspired favorite of their 
deities, and followed him with fanatic zeal. His enemies looked 
on him as the pre-appointed minister of Heaven's wrath against 
themselves ; and, though they believed not in his creed, their 
own made them tremble before him. 

In one of his early campaigns he appeared before his troops 
with an ancient iron sword in his grasp, which he told them was 
the god of war whom their ancestors had worshipped. It is 
certain that the nomadic tribes of Northern Asia, whom Herod- 
otus described under the name of Scythians, from the earliest 
times worshipped as their god a bare sword. That sword-god 
was supposed, in Attila's time, to have disappeared from earth ; 
but the Hunnish king now claimed to have received it by spe- 
cial revelation. It was said that a herdsman, who was tracking 
in the desert a wounded heifer by the drops of blood, found the 
mysterious sword standing fixed in the ground, as if it had been 
darted down from heaven. The herdsman bore it to Attila, who 
thenceforth was believed by the Huns to wield the Spirit of 
Death in battle ; and the seers prophesied that that sword was 
to destroy the world. A Roman,* who was on an embassy to 
the Hunnish camp, recorded in his memoirs Attila's acquisition 
of this supernatural weapon, and the immense influence over the 
minds of the barbaric tribes which its possession gave him. In 
the title which he assumed, we shall see the skill with which he 
availed himself of the legends and creeds of other nations as 
well as of his own. He designated himself " Attila, Descend- 
ant of the Great Nimrod. Nurtured in Engaddi. By the 
grace of God, King of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the 
Medes. The Dread of the World." 

Herbert states that Attila is represented on an old medallion 

* Priscus. 



150 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

with a teraphim, or a head, on his breast ; and the same writer 
adds : " We know, from the ' Hamartigenea ' of Prudentius, that 
Nimrod, with a snaky-haired head, was the object of adoration 
to the heretical followers of Marcion ; and the same head was 
the palladium set up by Antiochus Epiphanes over the gates of 
Antioch, though it has been called the visage of Charon. The 
memory of Nimrod was certainly regarded with mystic venera- 
tion by many ; and by asserting himself to be the heir of that 
mighty hunter before the Lord, he vindicated to himself at least 
the whole Babylonian kingdom. 

" The singular assertion in his style, that he was nurtured in 
Engaddi, where he certainly had never been, will be more easily 
understood on reference to the twelfth chapter of the Book of 
Revelation, concerning the women clothed with the sun, who 
was to bring forth in the wilderness — ' where she hath a place 
prepared of God ' — a man-child, who was to contend with the 
dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and rule all nations 
with a rod of iron. This prophecy was at that time understood 
universally by the sincere Christians to refer to the birth of 
Constantine, who was to overwhelm the paganism of the city on 
the seven hills, and it is still so explained ; but it is evident that 
the heathens must have looked on it in a different light, and 
have regarded it as a foretelling of the birth of that Great One 
who should master the temporal power of Rome. The asser- 
tion, therefore, that he was nurtured in Engaddi is a claim to 
be looked upon as that man-child who was to be brought forth 
in a place prepared of God in the wilderness. Engaddi means 
a place of palms and vines, in the desert ; it was hard by Zoar, 
the city of refuge, which was saved in the vale of Siddim, or 
Demons, when the rest was destroyed by fire and brimstone 
from the Lord in heaven, and might therefore be especially 
called a place prepared of God in the wilderness." 

It is obvious enough why he styled himself " By the grace of 
God, King of the Huns and Goths ;" and it seems far from dif- 
ficult to see why he added the names of the Medes and the 
Danes. His armies had been engaged in warfare against the 
Persian kingdom of the Sassanidae ; and it is certain * that he 
meditated the attack and overthrow of the Medo-Persian power. 
Probably some of the northern provinces of that kingdom had 
been compelled to pay him tribute ; and this would account for 
his styling himself King of the Medes, they being his remotest 

* See the narrative of Priscua. 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 151 

subjects to the south. From a similar cause he may have called 
himself King of the Danes, as his power may well have extend- 
ed northwards as far as the nearest of the Scandinavian nations ; 
and this mention of Medes and Danes as his subjects would 
serve at once to indicate the vast extent of his dominion.* 

The extensive territory north of the Danube and Black Sea, 
and eastward of Caucasus, over which Attila ruled, first in con- 
junction with his brother Bleda, and afterwards alone, cannot 
be very accurately defined ; but it must have comprised within 
it, besides the Huns, many nations of Slavic, Gothic, Teutonic, 
and Finnish origin. South also of the Danube, the country 
from the river Sau as far as Novi in Thrace was a Hunnish prov- 
ince. Such was the empire of the Huns in a.d. 445 ; a mem- 
orable year, in which Attila founded Buda on the Danube as 
his capital city ; and ridded himself of his brother by a crime, 
which seems to have been prompted not only by selfish ambi- 
tion, but also by a desire of turning to his purpose the legends 
and forebodings which then were universally spread throughout 
the Roman empire, and must have been well known to the watch- 
ful and ruthless Hun. 

The year 445 of our era completed the twelfth century from 
the foundation of Rome, according to the best chronologers. It 
had always been believed among the Romans that the twelve 
vultures which were said to have appeared to Romulus when he 
founded the city signified the time during which the Roman 
power should endure. The twelve vultures denoted twelve cen- 
turies. This interpretation of the vision of the birds of destiny 
was current among learned Romans, even when there were yet 
many of the twelve centuries to run, and while the imperial city 
was at the zenith of its power. But as the allotted time drew 
nearer and nearer to its conclusion, and as Rome grew weaker 
and weaker beneath the blows of barbaric invaders, the terrible 
omen was more and more talked and thought of ; and in Atti- 
la's time men watched for the momentary extinction of the 
Roman state with the last beat of the last vulture's wing. More- 
over, among the numerous legends connected with the founda- 
tion of the city, and the fratricidal death of Remus, there was 
one most terrible one, which told that Romulus did not put his 
brother to death in accident, or in hasty quarrel, but that 

* In the " Nibelungenlied," the old poet who describes the reception of 
the heroine Chrimhild by Attila (Etsel) says that Attila's dominions were so 
vast that among his subject-warriors there were Russian, Greek, Wallachian, 
Polish, and even Danish knights. 



152 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

" He slew his gallant twin 
With inexpiable sin," 

deliberately, and in compliance with the warnings of supernat- 
ural powers. The shedding of a brother's blood was believed 
to have been the price at which the founder of Rome had pur- 
chased from destiny her twelve centuries of existence.* 

We may imagine, therefore, with what terror in this, the 
twelve-hundredth year after the foundation of Rome, the inhab- 
itants of the Roman empire must have heard the tidings that 
the royal brethren, Attila and Bleda > had founded a new capitol 
on the Danube, which was designed to rule over the ancient 
capitol on the Tiber ; and that Attila, like Romulus, had conse- 
crated the foundation of his new city by murdering his brother ; 
so that, for the new cycle of centuries then about to commence, 
dominion had been bought from the gloomy spirits of destiny 
in favor of the Hun by a sacrifice of equal awe and value with 
that which had formerly obtained it for the Romans. 

It is to be remembered that not only the pagans, but also the 
Christians of that age, knew and believed in these legends and 
omens, however they might differ as to the nature of the super- 
human agency by which such mysteries had been made known 
to mankind. And we may observe, with Herbert, a modern 
learned dignitary of our church, how remarkably this augury 
was fulfilled. For " if to the twelve centuries denoted by the 
twelve vultures that appeared to Romulus we add, for the six 
birds that appeared to Remus, six lustra, or periods of five years 
each, by which the Romans were wont to number their time, 
it brings us precisely to the year 476, in which the Roman em- 
pire was finally extinguished by Odoacer." 

An attempt to assassinate Attila, made, or supposed to have 
been made, at the instigation of Theodosius the Younger, the 
Emperor of Constantinople, drew the Hunnish armies, in 445, 
upon the Eastern empire, and delayed for a time the destined 
blow against Rome. Probably a more important cause of delay 
was the revolt of some of the Hunnish tribes to the north of the 
Black Sea against Attila, which broke out about this period, and 
is cursorily mentioned by the Byzantine writers. Attila quelled 
this revolt ; and having thus consolidated his power, and having 
punished the presumption of the Eastern Roman emperor by 

* See a curious justification of Attila's murder of his brother, by a zealous 
Hungarian advocate, in the note to Pray's " Annales Hunnorum," p. 117. The 
example of Romulus is the main authority quoted. 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 153 

fearful ravages of his fairest provinces, Attila, a.d. 450, pre- 
pared to set his vast forces in motion for the conquest of West- 
ern Europe. He sought unsuccessfully by diplomatic intrigues 
to detach the King of the Visigoths from his alliance with Rome, 
and he resolved first to crush the power of Theodoric, and then 
to advance with overwhelming power to trample out the last 
sparks of the doomed Roman empire. 

A strong invitation from a Roman princess gave him a pretext 
for the war, and threw an air of chivalric enterprise over his 
invasion. Honoria, sister of Valentinian III., the Emperor of 
the West, had sent to Attila to offer him her hand, and her sup- 
posed right to share in the imperial power. This had been dis- 
covered by the Romans, and Honoria had been forthwith closely 
imprisoned. Attila now pretended to take up arms in behalf 
of his self-promised bride, and proclaimed that he was about to 
march to Rome to redress Honoria's wrongs. Ambition and spite 
against her brother must have been the sole motives that led 
the lady to woo the royal Hun ; for Attila's face and person had 
all the national ugliness of his race, and the description given of 
him by a Byzantine ambassador must have been well known in 
the imperial courts. Herbert has well versified the portrait drawn 
by Priscus of the great enemy of both Byzantium and Rome : 

" Terrific was his semblance, in no mould 
Of beautiful proportion cast ; his limbs 
Nothing exalted, but with sinews braced 
Of chalybean temper, agile, lithe, 
And swifter than the roe ; his ample chest 
Was overbrowed by a gigantic head, 
With eyes keen, deeply sunk, and small, that gleamed 
Strangely in wrath, as though some spirit unclean 
Within that corporal tenement installed 
Looked from its windows, but with tempered fire 
Beamed mildly on the unresisting. Thin 
His beard and hoary ; his flat nostrils crowned 
A cicatrized, swart visage: but withal 
That questionable shape such glory wore 
That mortals quailed beneath him." 

Two chiefs of the Franks, who were then settled on the Lower 
Rhine, were at this period engaged in a feud with each other ; 
and while one of them appealed to the Romans for aid, the 
other invoked the assistance and protection of the Huns. Attila 
thus obtained an ally whose co-operation secured for him the 
passage of the Rhine ; and it was this circumstance which caused 
him to take a northward route from Hungary for his attack upon 



154 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

Gaul. The muster of the Hunnish hosts was swollen by war- 
riors of every tribe that they had subjugated ; nor is there any 
reason to suspect the old chroniclers of wilful exaggeration in 
estimating Attila's army at seven hundred thousand strong. 
Having crossed the Rhine, probably a little below Coblentz, he 
defeated the king of the Burgundians, who endeavored to bar 
his progress. He then divided his vast forces into two armies, 
— one of which marched northwest upon Tongres and Arras, 
and the other cities of that part of France ; while the main body, 
under Attila himself, marched up the Moselle, and destroyed 
Besan§on, and other towns in the country of the Burgundians. 
One of the latest and best biographers of Attila* well observes 
that, " having thus conquered the eastern part of France, Attila 
prepared for an invasion of the West Gothic territories beyond 
the Loire. He marched upon Orleans, where he intended to 
force the passage of that river; and only a little attention is 
requisite to enable us to perceive that he proceeded on a sys- 
tematic plan. He had his right wing on the north, for the pro- 
tection of his Frank allies ; his left wing on the south, for the 
purpose of preventing the Burgundians from rallying, and of 
menacing the passes of the Alps from Italy ; and he led his 
centre towards the chief object of the campaign — the conquest 
of Orleans, and an easy passage into the West Gothic dominion. 
The whole plan is very like that of the allied powers in 1814, 
with this difference, that their left wing entered France through 
the defiles of the Jura, in the direction of Lyons, and that the 
military object of the campaign was the capture of Paris." 

It was not until the year 451 that the Huns commenced the 
siege of Orleans ; and during their campaign in Eastern Gaul, 
the Roman general Aetius had strenuously exerted himself in 
collecting and organizing such an army as might, when united 
to the soldiery of the Visigoths, be fit to face the Huns in the 
field. He enlisted every subject of the Roman empire whom 
patriotism, courage, or compulsion could collect beneath the 
standards; and round these troops, which assumed the once 
proud title of the legions of Rome, he arrayed the large forces 
of barbaric auxiliaries whom pay, persuasion, or the general hate 
and dread of the Huns brought to the camp of the last of the 
Roman generals. King Theodoric exerted himself with equal 
energy. Orleans resisted her besiegers bravely as in after-times. 

* Biographical Dictionary commenced by the Useful Knowledge Society in 
1844. 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 155 

The passage of the Loire was skilfully defended against the 
Huns ; and Aetius and Theodoric, after much manoeuvring and 
difficulty, effected a junction of their armies to the south of that 
important river. 

On the advance of the allies upon Orleans, Attila instantly 
broke up the siege of that city, and retreated towards the Marne. 
He did not choose to risk a decisive battle with only the central 
corps of his army against the combined power of his enemies ; 
and he therefore fell back upon his base of operations ; calling 
in his wings from Arras and Besancon, and concentrating the 
whole of the Hunnish forces on the vast plains of Chalons-sur- 
Marne. A glance at the map will show how scientifically this 
place was chosen by the Hunnish general, as the point for his 
scattered forces to converge upon ; and the nature of the ground 
was eminently favorable for the operations of cavalry, the arm 
in which Attila's strength peculiarly lay. 

It was during the retreat from Orleans that a Christian her- 
mit is reported to have approached the Hunnish king and said 
to him, " Thou art the Scourge of God for the chastisement of 
Christians." Attila instantly assumed this new title of terror, 
which thenceforth became the appellation by which he was most 
widely and most fearfully known. 

The confederate armies of Romans and Visigoths at last met 
their great adversary, face to face, on the ample battle-ground of 
the Chalons plains. Aetius commanded on the right of the allies ; 
King Theodoric on the left ; and Sangipan, king of the Alans, 
whose fidelity was suspected, was placed purposely in the centre 
and in the very front of the battle. Attila commanded his centre 
in person, at the head of his own countrymen, while the Ostro- 
goths, the Gepidae, and the other subject allies of the Huns 
were drawn up on the wings. Some manoeuvring appears to 
have occurred before the engagement, in which Aetius had the 
advantage, inasmuch as he succeeded in occupying a sloping 
hill, which commanded the left flank of the Huns. Attila saw 
the importance of the position taken by Aetius on the high 
ground, and commenced the battle by a furious attack on this 
part of the Roman line, in which he seems to have detached 
some of his best troops from his centre to aid his left. The 
Romans having the advantage of the ground, repulsed the Huns, 
and while the allies gained this advantage on their right, their 
left, under King Theodoric, assailed the Ostrogoths, who formed 
the right of Attila's army. The gallant king was himself struck 
down by a javelin, as he rode onward at the head of his men, 



156 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

and his own cavalry charging over him trampled him to death 
in the confusion. But the Visigoths, infuriated, not dispirited, 
by their monarch's fall, routed the enemies opposed to them, 
and then wheeled upon the flank of the Hunnish centre, which 
had been engaged in a sanguinary and indecisive contest with 
the Alans. 

In this peril Attila made his centre fall back upon his camp ; 
and when the shelter of its intrenchments and wagons had once 
been gained, the Hunnish archers repulsed, without difficulty, 
the charges of the vengeful Gothic cavalry. Aetius had not 
pressed the advantage which he gained on his side of the field, 
and when night fell over the wild scene of havoc, Attila's left 
was still unbroken, but his right had been routed, and his centre 
forced back upon his camp. 

Expecting an assault on the morrow, Attila stationed his best 
archers in front of the cars and wagons, which were drawn up 
as a fortification along his lines, and made every preparation for 
a desperate resistance. But the " Scourge of God " resolved 
that no man should boast of the honor of having either captured 
or slain him ; and he caused to be raised in the centre of his 
encampment a huge pyramid of the wooden saddles of his cav- 
alry: round it he heaped the spoils and the wealth that he had 
won ; on it he stationed his wives who had accompanied him in 
the campaign ; and on the summit he placed himself, ready to 
perish in the flames, and balk the victorious foe of their choicest 
booty, should they succeed in storming his defences. 

But when the morning broke, and revealed the extent of the 
carnage, with which the plains were heaped for miles, the suc- 
cessful allies saw also and respected the resolute attitude of their 
antagonist. Neither were any measures taken to blockade him 
in his camp, and so to extort by famine that submission which 
it was too plainly perilous to enforce with the sword. Attila 
was allowed to march back the remnants of his army without 
molestation, and even with the semblance of success. 

It is probable that the crafty Aetius was unwilling to be too 
victorious. He dreaded the glory which his allies, the Visigoths, 
had acquired ; and feared that Rome might find a second Alaric 
in Prince Thorismund, who had signalized himself in the battle, 
and had been chosen on the field to succeed his father Theod- 
oric. He persuaded the young king to return at once to his 
capital, and thus relieved himself at the same time of the pres- 
ence of a dangerous friend as well as of a formidable, though 
beaten, foe. 



BATTLE OF CHALONS. 157 

Attila's attacks on the Western empire were soon renewed ; 
but never with such peril to the civilized world as had menaced 
it before his defeat at Chalons. And on his death, two years 
after that battle, the vast empire which his genius had founded 
was soon dissevered by the successful revolts of the subject 
nations. The name of the Huns ceased for some centuries to 
inspire terror in Western Europe, and their ascendency passed 
away with the life of the great king by whom it had been so 
fearfully augmented.* 



SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF CHALONS, 
a.d. 451, AND THE BATTLE OF TOURS, 732. 

a.d. 476. The Roman empire of the West extinguished by 
Odoacer. 

481. Establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul by 
Clovis. 

455 to 582. The Saxons, Angles, and Frisians conquer Brit- 
ain, except the northern parts, and the districts along the west 
coast. The German conquerors found eight independent king- 
doms. 

533 to 568. The generals of Justinian, the Emperor of Con- 
stantinople, conquer Italy and North Africa; and these coun- 
tries are for a short time annexed to the Roman Empire of the 
East. 

568 to 570. The Lombards conquer great part of Italy. 

570 to 627. The wars between the emperors of Constantinople 
and the kings of Persia are actively continued. 

622. The Mahometan era of the Hegira. Mahomet is driven 
from Mecca, and is received as prince of Medina. 

629 to 632. Mahomet conquers Arabia. 

632 to 651. The Mahometan Arabs invade and conquer Persia. 

632 to 709. They attack the Roman empire of the East. They 
conquer Syria, Egypt, and Africa. 

709 to 713. They cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and invade 
and conquer Spain. 

* If I seem to have given fewer of the details of the battle itself than its 
importance would warrant, my excuse must be, that Gibbon has enriched our 
language with a description of it too long for quotation and too splendid for 
rivalry. I have not, however, taken altogether the same view of it that he 
has. The notes to Mr. Herbert's poem of " Attila " bring together nearly all 
the authorities on the subject, 



15 8 BATTLE OF CHALONS. 

" At the death of Mohammed, in 632, his temporal and relig- 
ious sovereignty embraced and was limited by the Arabian 
peninsula. The Roman and Persian empires, engaged in tedious 
and indecisive hostility upon the rivers of Mesopotamia and the 
Armenian mountains, were viewed by the ambitious fanatics of 
his creed as their quarry. In the very first year of Mohammed's 
immediate successor, Abubeker, each of these mighty empires 
was invaded. The crumbling fabric of Eastern despotism is 
never secured against rapid and total subversion ; a few victo- 
ries, a few sieges, carried the Arabian arms from the Tigris to 
the Oxus, and overthrew, with the Sassanian dynasty, the ancient 
and famous religion they had professed. Seven years of active 
and unceasing warfare sufficed to subjugate the rich province of 
Syria, though defended by numerous armies and fortified cities ; 
and the Khalif Omar had scarcely returned thanks for the ac- 
complishment of this conquest, when Amrou, his lieutenant, an- 
nounced to him the entire reduction of Egypt. After some in- 
terval, the Saracens won their way along the coast of Africa, as 
far as the Pillars of Hercules, and a third province was irre- 
trievably torn from the Greek empire. These western conquests 
introduced them to fresh enemies, and ushered in more splendid 
successes. Encouraged by the disunion of the Visigoths, and 
invited by treachery, Musa, the general of a master who sat be- 
yond the opposite extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, passed 
over into Spain, and within about two years the name of Mo- 
hammed was invoked under the Pyrenees." — Hallam. 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 159 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BATTLE OF TOURS, A.D. 732. 

" The events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbors of 
Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran." — Gibbon. 

The broad tract of champaign country which intervenes be- 
tween the cities of Poitiers and Tours is principally composed 
of a succession of rich pasture-lands, which are traversed and 
fertilized by the Cher, the Creuse, the Vienne, the Claine, the 
Indre, and other tributaries of the river Loire. Here and there 
the ground swells into picturesque eminences ; and occasionally 
a belt of forest land, a brown heath, or a clustering series of 
vineyards, breaks the monotony of the widespread meadows; 
but the general character of the land is that of a grassy plain, 
and it seems naturally adapted for the evolutions of numerous 
armies, especially of those vast bodies of cavalry which princi- 
pally decided the fate of nations during the centuries that fol- 
lowed the downfall of Rome and preceded the consolidation of 
the modern European powers. 

This region has been signalized by more than one memorable 
conflict ; but it is principally interesting to the historian by 
having been the scene of the great victory won by Charles Mar- 
tel over the Saracens, a.d. 732, which gave a decisive check to 
the career of the Arab conquest in Western Europe, rescued 
Christendom from Islam, preserved the relics of ancient and the 
germs of modern civilization, and re-established the old supe- 
riority of the Indo-European over the Semitic family of man- 
kind. 

Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring interest 
of this great appeal of battle between the champions of the 
Crescent and the Cross. But, if French writers have slighted 
the exploits of their national hero, the Saracenic trophies of 
Charles Martel have had full justice done to them by English 
and German historians. Gibbon devotes several pages of his 



180 BATTLE OF TOURS. 

great work* to the narrative of the battle of Tours, and to the 
consideration of the consequences which probably would have 
resulted if Abderrah man's enterprise had not been crushed by 
the Frankish chief. Schlegelf speaks of this "mighty victory" 
in terms of fervent gratitude, and tells how " the arms of 
Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the 
West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam ;" and 
RankeJ points out, as "one of the most important epochs in 
the history of the world, the commencement of the eighth cen- 
tury, when, on the one side, Mahommedanism threatened to 
overspread Italy and Gaul, and, On the other, the ancient idolatry 
of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the 
Rhine. In this peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince 
of Germanic race, Karl Martell, arose as their champion ; main- 
tained them with all the energy which the necessity for self-de- 
fence calls forth, and finally extended them into new regions." 

Arnold ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher than 
the victory of Arminius, § " among those signal deliverances 
which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind." 
In fact, the more we test its importance, the higher we shall be 
led to estimate it ; and, though the authentic details which we 
possess of its circumstances and its heroes are but meagre, we 
can trace enough of its general character to make us watch with 
deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of the 
decaying Roman empire. That old classic world, the history of 
which occupies so large a portion of our early studies, lay, in 
the eighth century of our era, utterly exanimate and overthrown. 
On the north the German, on the south the Arab, was rending 
away its provinces. At last the spoilers encountered one another, 
each striving for the full mastery of the prey. Their conflict 
brought back upon the memory of Gibbon the old Homeric sim- 
ile, where the strife of Hector and Patroclus over the dead body 
of Cebriones is compared to the combat of two lions that, in 
their hate and hunger, fight together on the mountain-tops over 
the carcass of a slaughtered stag ; and the reluctant yielding of 

* Vol. vii., p. 1*7 et seq. Gibbon's remark, that if the Saracen conquest 
had not then been checked, " Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would 
now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate 
to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet," 
has almost an air of regret. 

f "Philosophy of History," p. 331. 

\ " History of the Reformation in Germany," vol. i., p. 5. 

§" History of the Later Roman Commonwealth," vol. ii., p. 31V. 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 161 

the Saracen power to the superior might of the Northern war- 
riors might not inaptly recall those other lines of the same book 
of the Iliad where the downfall of Patroclus beneath Hector is 
likened to the forced yielding of the panting and exhausted wild 
boar that had long and furiously fought with a superior beast of 
prey for the possession of the fountain among the rocks, at 
which each burned to drink.* 

Although three centuries had passed away since the Germanic 
conquerors of Rome had crossed the Rhine, never to repass that 
frontier stream, no settled system of institutions or government, 
no amalgamation of the various races into one people, no uni- 
formity of language or habits, had been established in the 
country at the time when Charles Martel was called on to repel 
the menacing tide of Saracenic invasion from the south. Gaul 
was not yet France. In that, as in other provinces of the Roman 
empire of the West, the dominion of the Caesars had been shat- 
tered as early as the fifth century, and barbaric kingdoms and 
principalities had promptly arisen on the ruins of the Roman 
power. But few of these had any permanency ; and none of 
them consolidated the rest, or any considerable number of the 
rest, into one coherent and organized civil and political society. 
The great bulk of the population still consisted of the conquered 
provincials ; that is to say, of Romanized Celts, of a Gallic race 
which had long been under the dominion of the Csesars, and had 
acquired, together with no slight infusion of Roman blood, the 
language, the literature, the laws, and the civilization of Latium. 
Among these, and dominant over them, roved or dwelt the Ger- 
man victors : some retaining nearly all the rude independence of 
their primitive national character ; others softened and disci- 
plined by the aspect and contact of the manners and institutions 
of civilized life. For it is to be borne in mind that the Roman 
empire in the West was not crushed by any sudden avalanche 
of barbaric invasion. The German conquerors came across the 
Rhine not in enormous hosts, but in bands of a few thousand 

* AkovO' wf, Sr]piv9i']TT]v, 
"Qt opsoe Kopv<p7j(Ti iripi KTctfih'ijg tXdcpoio, 
"A/x<pio 7THvaovTE, fisya typovkovre. fidxtaQov. 

11. 7r\ ?56. 

'Qg S' ote ovv aKaf.ia.VTCi Xicov tj3ii)(TaTO \ap^y y 
Tw t opeog Kopv<p?jm fdya (ppoviovrt fin^aOov, 
IlidaicoQ dp(p' oXiytjg' tOtXovcri St Trdp.tv a\i$u ' 
UaXXa Sk t a<jQp.aivovTa Xtuiv ISd^aaae. (3iy<piv. 

11. tt', 823. 



162 BATTLE OF TOURS. 

warriors at a time. The conquest of a province was the result 
of an infinite series of partial local invasions, carried on by lit- 
tle armies of this description. The victorious warriors either 
retired with their booty or fixed themselves in the invaded dis- 
trict, taking care to keep sufficiently concentrated for military 
purposes, and ever ready for some fresh foray, either against a 
rival Teutonic band, or some hitherto unassailed city of the 
provincials. Gradually, however, the conquerors acquired a de- 
sire for permanent landed possessions. They lost somewhat of 
the restless thirst for novelty and adventure which had first 
made them throng beneath the banner of the boldest captains of 
their tribe, and leave their native forests for a roving military 
life on the left bank of the Rhine. They were converted to the 
Christian faith ; and gave up with their old creed much of the 
coarse ferocity, which must have been fostered in the spirits of 
the ancient warriors of the North by a mythology which prom- 
ised, as the reward of the brave on earth, an eternal cycle of 
fighting and drunkenness in heaven. 

But although their conversion and other civilizing influences 
operated powerfully upon the Germans in Gaul, and although 
the Franks (who were originally a confederation of the Teutonic 
tribes that dwelt between the Rhine, the Maine, and the Weser) 
established a decided superiority over the other conquerors of 
the province as well as over the conquered provincials, the 
country long remained a chaos of uncombined and shifting ele- 
ments. The early princes of the Merovingian dynasty were gen- 
erally occupied in wars against other princes of their house, 
occasioned by the frequent subdivisions of the Frank monarchy ; 
and the ablest and best of them had found all their energies 
tasked to the utmost to defend the barrier of the Rhine against 
the pagan Germans, who strove to pass that river and gather 
their share of the spoils of the empire. 

The conquests which the Saracens effected over the southern 
and eastern provinces of Rome were far more rapid than those 
achieved by the Germans in the north ; and the new organiza- 
tions of society which the Moslems introduced were summarily 
and uniformly enforced. Exactly a century passed between the 
death of Mahomet and the date of the battle of Tours. Dur- 
ing that century the followers of the Prophet had torn away 
half the Roman empire ; and, besides their conquests over Per- 
sia, the Saracens had overrun Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain 
in an unchequered and apparently irresistible career of victory. 
Nor, at the commencement of the eighth century of our era, 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 163 

was the Mahometan world divided against itself, as it subse- 
quently became. All these vast regions obeyed the caliph ; 
throughout them all, from the Pyrenees to the Oxus, the name 
of Mahomet was invoked in prayer, and the Koran revered as 
the book of the law. 

It was under one of their ablest and most renowned com- 
manders, with a veteran army, and with every apparent advan- 
tage of time, place, and circumstance, that the Arabs made their 
great effort at the conquest of Europe north of the Pyrenees. 
The victorious Moslem soldiery in Spain, 

"A countless multitude; 
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade, 
Persian, and Copt, and Tartar, in one bond 
Of erring faith conjoined — strong in the youth 
And heat of zeal — a dreadful brotherhood," 

were eager for the plunder of more Christian cities and shrines, 
and full of fanatic confidence in the invincibility of their arms. 

" Nor were the chiefs 
Of victory less assured, by long success 
Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength 
Which surely, they believed, as it had rolled 
Thus far unchecked, would roll victorious on, 
Till, like the Orient, the subjected West 
Should bow in reverence at Mahommed's name ; 
And pilgrims from remotest Arctic shores 
Tread with religious feet the burning sands 
Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil." 

Southey's Roderick. 

It is not only by the modern Christian poet, but by the old 
Arabian chroniclers also, that these feelings of ambition and 
arrogance are attributed to the Moslems, who had overthrown 
the Visigoth power in Spain. And their eager expectations of 
new wars were excited to the utmost on the reappointment by 
the caliph of Abderrahman Ibn Abdillah Alghafeki to the gov- 
ernment of that country, a.d. 729, which restored them a gen- 
eral who had signalized his skill and prowess during the con- 
quests of Africa and Spain ; whose ready valor and generosity 
had made him the idol of the troops ; who had already been en- 
gaged in several expeditions into Gaul, so as to be well acquaint- 
ed with the national character and tactics of the Franks ; and 
who was known to thirst, like a good Moslem, for revenge for 
the slaughter of some detachments of the true believers which 
had been cut off on the north of the Pyrenees. 



264: BATTLE OF TO UBS. 

In addition to his cardinal military virtues, Abderrahman is 
described by the Arab writers as a model of integrity and justice. 
The first two years of his second administration in Spain were 
occupied in severe reforms of the abuses which under his prede- 
cessors had crept into the system of government, and in exten- 
sive preparations for his intended conquest of Gaul. Besides 
the troops which he collected from his province, he obtained 
from Africa a large body of chosen Berber cavalry, officered by 
Arabs of proved skill and valor; and in the summer of 732 he 
crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an army which some Arab 
writers rate at eighty thousand strong, while some of the Chris- 
tian chroniclers swell its numbers to many hundreds of thou- 
sands more. Probably the Arab account diminishes, but of the 
two keeps nearer to the truth. It was from this formidable 
host, after Eudes, the Count of Aquitaine, had vainly striven 
to check it, after many strong cities had fallen before it, and 
half the land been overrun, that Gaul and Christendom were at 
last rescued by the strong arm of Prince Charles, who acquired 
a surname,* like that of the war-god of his forefathers' creed, 
from the might with which he broke and shattered his enemies 
in the battle. 

The Merovingian kings had sunk into absolute insignificance, 
and had become mere puppets of royalty before the eighth cen- 
tury. Charles Martel, like his father, Pepin Heristal, was duke 
of the Austrasian Franks, the bravest and most thoroughly Ger- 
manic part of the nation ; and exercised, in the name of the tit- 
ular king, what little paramount authority the turbulent minor 
rulers of districts and towns could be persuaded or compelled 
to acknowledge. Engaged with his national competitors in per- 
petual conflicts for power, engaged also in more serious strug- 
gles for safety against the fierce tribes of the unconverted Fris- 
ians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Thuringians, who at that epoch 
assailed with peculiar ferocity the Christianized Germans on the 
left bank of the Rhine, Charles Martel added experienced skill 
to his natural courage, and he had also formed a militia of vet- 
erans among the Franks. Hallam has thrown out a doubt 
whether, in our admiration of his victory at Tours, we do not 
judge a little too much by the event, and whether there was not 
rashness in his risking the fate of France on the result of a 
general battle with the invaders. But when we remember that 

* Martel — " The Hammer." See the Scandinavian Sagas for an account of 
the favorite weapon of Thor. 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 165 

Charles had no standing army, and the independent spirit of the 
Frank warriors who followed his standard, it seems most proba- 
ble that it was not in his power to adopt the cautious policy of 
watching the invaders, and wearing out their strength by delay. 
So dreadful and so widespread were the ravages of the Saracenic 
light cavalry throughout Gaul that it must have been impossible 
to restrain for any length of time the indignant ardor of the 
Franks. And, even if Charles could have persuaded his men 
to look tamely on while the Arabs stormed more towns and des- 
olated more districts, he could not have kept an army together 
when the usual period of a military expedition had expired. If, 
indeed, the Arab account of the disorganization of the Moslem 
forces be correct, the battle was as well timed on the part of 
Charles as it was, beyond all question, well fought. 

The monkish chroniclers, from whom we are obliged to glean 
a narrative of this memorable campaign, bear full evidence to 
the terror which the Saracen invasion inspired, and to the agony 
of that great struggle. The Saracens, say they, and their king, 
who was called Abdirames. came out of Spain, with all their 
wives, and their children, and their substance, in such great 
multitudes that no man could reckon or estimate them. They 
brought with them all their armor, and whatever they had, as if 
they were thenceforth always to dwell in France.* 

" Then Abderrahman, seeing the land filled with the multitude 
of his army, pierces through the mountains, tramples over rough 
and level ground, plunders far into the country of the Franks, 
and smites all with the sword, insomuch that when Eudo came 
to battle with him at the river Garonne, and fled before him, 
God alone knows the number of the slain. Then Abderrahman 
pursued after Count Eudo, and while he strives to spoil and burn 
the holy shrine at Tours, he encounters the chief of the Austra- 
sian Franks, Charles, a man of war from his youth up, to whom 
Eudo had sent warning. There for nearly seven days they strive 
intensely, and at last they set themselves in battle array ; and the 
nations of the north, standing firm as a wall, and impenetrable as a 
zone of ice, utterly slay the Arabs with the edge of the sword." f 

* " Lors issirent d'Espaigne li Sarrazins, et un leur Roi qui avoit nom Ab- 
dirames, et ont leur fames et leur enfans et toute leur substance en si grand 
plente que nus ne le prevoit nombrer ne estimer: tout leur harnois et quan- 
ques ils avoient amenement avec entz, aussi comme si ils deussent toujours 
mes habiter en France." 

\ "Tunc Abdirrahman, multitudine sui exercitus repletam prospiciens ter- 
ram," etc. — Script. Gest. Franc, p. 785. 



166 BATTLE OF TOURS. 

The European writers all concur in speaking of the fall of 
Abderrahman as one of the principal causes of the defeat of the 
Arabs ; who, according to one writer, after finding that their 
leader was slain, dispersed in the night, to the agreeable sur- 
prise of the Christians, who expected the next morning to see 
them issue from their tents and renew the combat. One monk- 
ish chronicler puts the loss of the Arabs at 375,000 men, while 
he says that only 1007 Christians fell — a disparity of loss which 
he feels bound to account for by a special interposition of Prov- 
idence. I have translated above some of the most spirited pas- 
sages of these writers ; but it is impossible to collect from them 
anything like a full or authentic description of the great battle 
itself, or of the operations which preceded or followed it. 

Though, however, we may have cause to regret the meagre- 
ness and doubtful character of these narratives, we have the 
great advantage of being able to compare the accounts given of 
Abderrahman's expedition by the national writers of each side. 
This is a benefit which the inquirer into antiquity so seldom can 
obtain, that the fact of possessing it, in the instance of the bat- 
tle of Tours, makes us think the historical testimony respecting 
that great event more certain and satisfactory than is the case 
in many other instances, where we possess abundant details re- 
specting military exploits, but where those details come to us 
from the annalist of one nation only ; and where we have, con- 
sequently, no safeguard against the exaggerations, the distor- 
tions, and the fictions which national vanity has so often put 
forth in the garb and under the title of history. The Arabian 
writers who recorded the conquests and wars of their country- 
men in Spain, have narrated also the expedition into Gaul of 
their great emir, and his defeat and death near Tours in battle 
with the host of the Franks under King Caldus, the name into 
which they metamorphose Charles.** 

They tell us how there was war between the count of the 
Frankish frontier and the Moslems, and how the count gath- 
ered together all his people, and fought for a time with doubt- 
ful success. " But," say the Arabian chroniclers, " Abderrah- 
man drove them back ; and the men of Abderrahman were puffed 

* The Arabian chronicles were compiled and translated into Spanish by 
Don Jose Antonio Conde, in his " Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabos 
en Espafia," published at Madrid in 1820. Conde's plan, which I have en- 
deavored to follow, was to preserve both the style and spirit of his Oriental 
authorities, so that we find in his pages a genuine Saracenic narrative of the 
wars in Western Europe between the Mahometans and the Christians. 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 167 

up in spirit by their repeated successes, and they were full of 
trust in the valor and the practice in war of their emir. So the 
Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the river Garonne, 
and laid waste the country, and took captives without number. 
And that army went through all places like a desolating storm. 
Prosperity made those warriors insatiable. At the passage of 
the river, Abderrahman overthrew the count, and the count re- 
tired into his stronghold, but the Moslems fought against it, and 
entered it by force, and slew the count; for everything gave 
way to their scimitars, which were the robbers of lives. All 
the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army, and 
they betook them to their king, Caldus, and told him of the 
havoc made by the Moslem horsemen, and how they rode at 
their will through all the land of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bor- 
deaux, and they told the king of the death of their count. Then 
the king bade them be of good cheer, and offered to aid them. 
And in the 114th year* he mounted his horse, and he took with 
him a host that could not be numbered, and went against the 
Moslems. And he came upon them at the great city of Tours. 
And Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers saw the disorder 
of the Moslem troops, who were loaded with spoil ; but they did 
not venture to displease the soldiers by ordering them to aban- 
don everything except their arms and war-horses. And Abder- 
rahman trusted in the valor of his soldiers and in the good fortune 
which had ever attended him. But (the Arab writer remarks) 
such defect of discipline always is fatal to armies. So Abder- 
rahman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil, 
and they fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city 
almost before the eyes of the army that came to save it; and 
the fury and the cruelty of the Moslems towards the inhabitants 
of the city were like the fury and cruelty of raging tigers. It 
was manifest," adds the Arab, " that God's chastisement was 
sure to follow such excesses ; and Fortune thereupon turned her 
back upon the Moslems. 

" Near the river Owar f the two great hosts of the two lan- 
guages and the two creeds were set in array against each other. 
The hearts of Abderrahman, his captains, and his men were filled 
with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin the fight. 
The Moslem horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against 
the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many 
fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun. Night 

* Of the Hegira. f Probably the Loire. 



168 BATTLE OF TOURS. 

parted the two armies ; but in the gray of the morning the Mos- 
lems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers had soon hewn 
their way into the centre of the Christian host. But many of 
the Moslems were fearful for the safety of the spoil which they 
had stored in their tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks 
that some of the enemy were plundering the camp ; whereupon 
several squadrons of the Moslem horsemen rode off to protect 
their tents. But it seemed as if they fled ; and all the host was 
troubled. And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult, 
and to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came 
around him, and he was pierced through with many spears, so 
that he died. Then all the host fled before the enemy, and 
many died in the flight. This deadly defeat of the Moslems, 
and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier Abderrah- 
man, took place in the hundred and fifteenth year." 

It would be difficult to expect from an adversary a more ex- 
plicit confession of having been thoroughly vanquished than 
the Arabs here accord to the Europeans. The points on which 
their narrative differs from those of the Christians — as to how 
many days the conflict lasted, whether the assailed city was act- 
ually rescued or not, and the like — are of little moment com- 
pared with the admitted great fact that there was a decisive 
trial of strength between Frank and Saracen, in which the for- 
mer conquered. The enduring importance of the battle of 
Tours in the eyes of the Moslems is attested not only by the 
expressions of " the deadly battle " and " the disgraceful over- 
throw," which their writers constantly employ when referring 
to it, but also by the fact that no further serious attempts at 
conquest beyond the Pyrenees were made by the Saracens. 
Charles Martel, and his son and grandson, were left at leisure to 
consolidate and extend their power. The new Christian Roman 
Empire of the West, which the genius of Charlemagne found- 
ed, and throughout which his iron will imposed peace on the 
old anarchy of creeds and races, did not indeed retain its in- 
tegrity after its great ruler's death. Fresh troubles came over 
Europe ; but Christendom, though disunited, was safe. The 
progress of civilization and the development of the nationali- 
ties and governments of modern Europe, from that time forth, 
went forward in not uninterrupted, but ultimately certain, career. 



BATTLE OF TOURS. 169 



SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF TOURS, 
a.d. 732, AND THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 1066. 

a.d. 768 to 814. Reign of Charlemagne. This monarch has 
justly been termed the principal regenerator of Western Europe 
after the destruction of the Roman empire. The early death of 
his brother, Carloman, left him sole master of the dominions of 
the Franks, which, by a succession of victorious wars, he en- 
larged into the new Empire of the West. He conquered the 
Lombards, and re-established the pope at Rome, who, in return, 
acknowledged Charles as suzerain of Italy. And in the year 800 
Leo III., in the name of the Roman people, solemnly crowned 
Charlemagne, at Rome, as emperor of the Roman Empire of the 
West. In Spain, Charlemagne ruled the country between the 
Pyrenees and the Ebro ; but his most important conquests were 
effected on the eastern side of his original kingdom, over the 
Sclavonians of Bohemia, the Avars of Pannonia, and over the 
previously uncivilized German tribes who had remained in their 
fatherland. The old Saxons were his most obstinate antago- 
nists, and his wars with them lasted for thirty years. Under 
him the greater part of Germany was compulsorily civilized, and 
converted from Paganism to Christianity. His empire extended 
eastward as far as the Elbe, the Saal, the Bohemian mountains, 
and a line drawn from thence crossing the Danube above Vien- 
na, and prolonged to the Gulf of Istria.* 

Throughout this vast assemblage of provinces Charlemagne 
established an organized and firm government. But it is not as 
a mere conqueror that he demands admiration. " In a life rest- 
lessly active, we see him reforming the coinage and establishing 
the legal divisions of money, gathering about him the learned 
of every country; founding schools and collecting libraries; in- 
terfering, with the air of a king, in religious controversies ; at- 
tempting, for the sake of commerce, the magnificent enterprise 
of uniting the Rhine and the Danube, and meditating to mould 
the discordant code of Roman and barbarian laws into a uni- 
form system." \ 

814 to 888. Repeated partitions of the empire and civil wars 
between Charlemagne's descendants. Ultimately the kingdom 
of France is finally separated from Germany and Italy. In 962 
Otho the Great of Germany revives the imperial dignity. 



* Hallam's " Middle Ages." f Hallam, n( wprcu 



170 BATTLE OF TOURS. 

827. Egbert, king of Wessex, acquires the supremacy over 
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 

832. The first Danish squadron attacks part of the English 
coast. The Danes, or Northmen, had begun their ravages in 
France a few years earlier. For two centuries Scandinavia sends 
out fleet after fleet of sea-rovers, who desolate all the western 
kingdoms of Europe, and in many cases effect permanent con- 
quests. 

871 to 900. Reign of Alfred in England. After a long and va- 
ried struggle he rescues England from the Danish invaders. 

911. The French king cedes Neustria to Hrolf the Northman. 
Hrolf (or Duke Rollo, as he thenceforth was termed) and his 
army of Scandinavian warriors become the ruling class of the 
population of the province, which is called after them Nor- 
mandy. 

1016. Four knights from Normandy, who had been on a pil- 
grimage to the Holy Land, while returning through Italy, head 
the people of Salerno in repelling an attack of a band of Sara- 
cen corsairs. In the next year many adventurers from Norman- 
dy settle in Italy, where they conquer Apulia (1040), and after- 
wards (1060) Sicily. 

1017. Canute, king of Denmark, becomes king of England. 
On the death of the last of his sons, in 1041, the Saxon line is 
restored, and Edward the Confessor (who had been bred in the 
court of the Duke of Normandy) is called by the English to the 
throne of this island, as the representative of the House of 
Cerdic. 

1035. Duke Robert of Normandy dies on his return from a 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and his son William (afterwards 
the conqueror of England) succeeds to the dukedom of Nor- 
mandy, 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 171 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 1066. 

" Eis vos la Bataille assemblee, 
Dune encore est grant renomee." 

Roman de Bou, I. 3183. 

Arletta's pretty feet twinkling in the brook gained her a 
dnke's love, and gave us William the Conqueror. Had she not 
thus fascinated Duke Robert the Liberal, of Normandy, Harold 
would not have fallen at Hastings, no Anglo-Norman dynasty 
could have arisen, no British empire. The reflection is Sir 
Francis Palgrave's ; * and it is emphatically true. If any one 
should write a history of " Decisive loves that have materially 
influenced the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes," 
the daughter of the tanner of Falaise would deserve a conspic- 
uous place in his pages. But it is her son, the victor of Hast- 
ings, who is now the object of our attention ; and no one who 
appreciates the influence of England and her empire upon the 
destinies of the world will ever rank that victory as one of 
secondary importance. 

It is true that in the last century some writers of eminence on 
our history and laws mentioned the Norman Conquest in terms 
from which it might be supposed that the battle of Hastings led 
to little more than the substitution of one royal family for an- 
other on the throne of this country, and to the garbling and 
changing of some of our laws through the " cunning of the 
Norman lawyers." But, at least since the appearance of the 
work of Augustin Thierry on the Norman Conquest, these fo- 
rensic fallacies have been exploded. Thierry made his readers 
keenly appreciate the magnitude of that political and social 
catastrophe. He depicted in vivid colors the atrocious cruelties 
of the conquerors, and the sweeping and enduring innovations 
that they wrought, involving the overthrow of the ancient con- 
stitution, as well as of the last of the Saxon kings. In his pages 

* "History of Normandy and England," vol. i., p. 526. 



172 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

we see new tribunals and tenures superseding the old ones, new 
divisions of race and class introduced, whole districts devas- 
tated to gratify the vengeance or the caprice of the new tyrant, 
the greater part of the lands of the English confiscated, and 
divided among aliens, the very name of Englishmen turned into 
a reproach, the English language rejected as servile and bar- 
barous, and all the high places in Church and State for upwards 
of a century filled exclusively by men of foreign race. 

No less true than eloquent is Thierry's summing-up of the 
social effects of the Norman Conquest on the generation that 
witnessed it, and on many of their successors. He tells his 
reader that " if he would form a just idea of England conquered 
by William of Normandy, he must figure to himself, not a mere 
change of political rule, not the triumph of one candidate over 
another candidate, of the man of one party over the man of 
another party ; but the intrusion of one people into the bosom 
of another people, the violent placing of one society over another 
society, which it came to destroy, and the scattered fragments 
of which it retained only as personal property, or (to use the 
words of an old act) as ' the clothing of the soil :' he must not 
picture to himself, on the one hand, William, a king and a despot ; 
on the other, subjects of William's, high and low, rich and 
poor, all inhabiting England, and consequently all English ; but 
he must imagine two nations, of one of which William is a 
member and the chief — two nations which (if the term must be 
used) were both subject to William, but as applied to which the 
word has quite different senses, meaning in the one case subor- 
dinate, in the other subjugated. He must consider that there 
are two countries, two soils, included in the same geographical 
circumference — that of the Normans, rich and free ; that of the 
Saxons, poor and serving, vexed by rent and taillage ; the former 
full of spacious mansions and walled and moated castles, the 
latter scattered over with huts and straw and ruined hovels : 
that peopled with the happy and the idle, with men of the army 
and of the court, with knights and nobles ; this with men of 
pain and labor, with farmers and artisans : on the one side, 
luxury and insolence ; on the other, misery and envy — not the 
envy of the poor at the sight of opulence they cannot reach, but 
the envy of the despoiled when in presence of the despoilers." 

Perhaps the effect of Thierry's work has been to cast into the 
shade the ultimate good effects on England of the Norman Con- 
quest. Yet these are as undeniable as are the miseries which 
that conquest inflicted on our Saxon ancestors from the time of 



BA TTLE OF HA S TWOS. 173 

the battle of Hastings to the time of the signing of the Great 
Charter at llunnymede. That last is the true epoch of English 
nationality : it is the epoch when Anglo-Norman and Anglo- 
Saxon ceased to keep aloof from each other — the one in haughty 
scorn, the other in sullen abhorrence ; and when all the free 
men of the land, whether barons, knights, yeomen, or burghers, 
combined to lay the foundations of English freedom. 

Our Norman barons were the chiefs of that primary consti- 
tutional movement ; those " iron barons " whom Chatham has so 
nobly eulogized. This alone should make England remember 
her obligations to the Norman Conquest, which planted far and 
wide, as a dominant class in her land, a martial nobility of the 
bravest and most energetic race that ever existed. 

It may sound paradoxical, but it is in reality no exaggeration 
to say, with Guizot,* that England owes her liberties to her 
having been conquered by the Normans. It is true that the 
Saxon institutions were the primitive cradle of English liberty, 
but by their own intrinsic force they could never have founded 
the enduring free English constitution. It was the Conquest 
that infused into them a new virtue ; and the political liberties 
of England arose from the situation in which the Anglo-Saxon 
and the Anglo-Norman populations and laws found themselves 
placed relatively to each other in this island. The state of 
England under her last Anglo-Saxon kings closely resembled 
the state of France under the last Carlovingian and the first 
Capetian princes. The crown was feeble, the great nobles were 
strong and turbulent. And although there was more national 
unity in Saxon England than in France ; although the English 
local free institutions had more reality and energy than was the 
case with anything analogous to them on the Continent in the 
eleventh century, still the probability is that the Saxon system 
of polity, if left to itself, would have fallen into utter confusion, 
out of which would have arisen first an aristocratic hierarchy 
like that which arose in France, next an absolute monarchy, and 
finally a series of anarchical revolutions, such as we now behold 
around, but not among us.j- 

The latest conquerors of this island were also the bravest and 
the best. I do not except even the Romans. And, in spite of our 
sympathies with Harold and Hereward, and our abhorrence of the 
founder of the New Forest, and the deaolator of Yorkshire, we must 

* "Essais sur l'Histoire de France," p. 273 et seq. 
\ See Guizot, ut supra. 



174 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

confess the superiority of the Normans to the Anglo-Saxons and 
Anglo-Danes, whom they met here in 1066, as well as to the degen- 
erate Frank noblesse and the crushed and servile Romanesque 
provincials from whom, in 912, they had wrested the district 
in the north of Gaul which still bears the name of Normandy. 

It was not merely by extreme valor and ready subordination 
or military discipline that the Normans were pre-eminent among 
all the conquering races of the Gothic stock, but also by their 
instinctive faculty of appreciating and adopting the superior 
civilizations which they encountered. Thus Duke Rollo and 
his Scandinavian warriors readily embraced the creed, the lan- 
guage, the laws, and the arts which France, in those troubled 
and evil times with which the Capetian dynasty commenced, 
still inherited from imperial Rome and imperial Charlemagne. 
" They adopted the customs, the duties, the obedience, that the 
capitularies of emperors and kings had established ; but that 
which they brought to the application of those laws was the 
spirit of life, the spirit of liberty — the habits also of military 
subordination, and the aptness for a state politic, which could 
reconcile the security of all with the independence of each."* 
So, also, in all chivalric feelings, in enthusiastic religious zeal, 
in almost idolatrous respect to females of gentle birth, in gen- 
erous fondness for the nascent poetry of the time, in a keen in- 
tellectual relish for subtle thought and disputation, in a taste 
for architectural magnificence, and all courtly refinement and 
pageantry, the Normans were the Paladins of the world. Their 
brilliant qualities were sullied by many darker traits of pride, of 
merciless cruelty, and of brutal contempt for the industry, the 
rights, and the feelings of all whom they considered the lower 
classes of mankind. 

Their gradual blending with the Saxons softened these harsh 
and evil points of their national character, and in return they 
fired the duller Saxon mass with a new spirit of animation and 
power. As Campbell boldly expressed it, " They high-mettled the 
blood of our veins." Small had been the figure which England 
made in the world before the coming-over of the Normans ; and 
without them she never would have emerged from insignificance. 
The authority of Gibbon may be taken as decisive, when he pro- 
nounces that, " Assuredly England was a gainer by the Con- 
quest." And we may proudly adopt the comment of the French- 
man Rapin, who, writing of the battle of Hastings more than a 

* Sismondi, "Histoire des Frar^ais," vol. in., p. 1H. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 175 

century ago, speaks of the revolution effected by it as " the first 
step by which England has arrived to that height of grandeur 
and glory we behold it in at present." * 

The interest of this eventful struggle, by which William of 
Normandy became King of England, is materially enhanced by 
the high personal characters of the competitors for our crown. 
They were three in number. One was a foreign prince from 
the North ; one was a foreign prince from the South ; and one 
was a native hero of the land. Harald Hardrada, the strongest 
and the most chivalric of the kings of Norway, j- was the first; 
Duke William of Normandy was the second ; and the Saxon 
Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, was the third. Never was a 
nobler prize sought by nobler champions, or striven for more 
gallantly. The Saxon triumphed over the Norwegian, and the 
Norman triumphed over the Saxon ; but Norse valor was never 
more conspicuous than when Harald Hardrada and his host 
fought and fell at Stamford Bridge ; nor did Saxons ever face 
their foes more bravely than our Harold and his men on the 
fatal day of Hastings. 

During the reign of King Edward the Confessor over this 
land, the claims of the Norwegian king to our crown were little 
thought of ; and though Hardrada' s predecessor, King Magnus 
of Norway, had on one occasion asserted that, by virtue of a 
compact with our former king, Hardicanute, he was entitled to 
the English throne, no serious attempt had been made to enforce 
his pretensions. But the rivalry of the Saxon Harold and the 
Norman William was foreseen and bewailed by the Confessor, 
who was believed to have predicted on his death-bed the calam- 
ities that were pending over England. Duke William was King 
Edward's kinsman. Harold was the head of the most powerful 
noble house, next to the royal blood, in England ; and personally 
he was the bravest and most popular chieftain in the land. King 
Edward was childless, and the nearest collateral heir was a puny, 
unpromising boy. England had suffered too severely during 
royal minorities to make the accession of Edgar Atheling desir- 
able ; and long before King Edward's death, Earl Harold was 
the destined king of the nation's choice, though the favor of 
the Confessor was believed to lean towards the Norman duke. 

A little time before the death of King Edward, Harold was in 
Normandy. The causes of the voyage of the Saxon earl to the 

* Rapin, " Hist. England," p. 164. See also Sharon Turner, vol. iv., p. 12 ; 
and, above all, Palgrave's " Normandy and England." 
f See in Snorre the "Saga of Harold Hardrada." 



176 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

Continent are doubtful ; but the fact of bis having been, in 1065, 
at the ducal court, and in the power of his rival, is indisputable. 
William made skilful and unscrupulous use of the opportunity. 
Though Harold was treated with outward courtesy and friend- 
ship, he was made fully aware that his liberty and life depend- 
ed on his compliance with the duke's requests. William said to 
him, in apparent confidence and cordiality, " When King Edward 
and I once lived like brothers under the same roof, he promised 
that if ever he became King of England, he would make me heir 
to his throne. Harold, I wish that thou wouldst assist me to 
realize this promise." Harold replied with expressions of assent ; 
and further agreed, at William's request, to marry William's 
daughter Adela, and to send over his own sister to be married 
to one of William's barons. The crafty Norman was not con- 
tent with this extorted promise ; he determined to bind Harold 
by a more solemn pledge, which, if broken, would be a weight 
on the spirit of the gallant Saxon, and a discouragement to 
others from adopting his cause. Before a full assembly of the 
Norman barons, Harold was required to do homage to Duke 
William, as the heir-apparent of the English crown. Kneeling 
down, Harold placed his hands between those of the duke, and 
repeated the solemn form by which he acknowledged the duke 
as his lord, and promised to him fealty and true service. But 
William exacted more. He had caused all the bones and relics 
of saints, that were preserved in the Norman monasteries and 
churches, to be collected into a chest, which was placed in the 
council-room, covered over with a cloth of gold. On the chest 
of relics, which were thus concealed, was laid a missal. The 
duke then solemnly addressed his titular guest and real captive, 
and said to him, " Harold, I require thee, before this noble 
assembly, to confirm by oath the promises which thou hast made 
me, to assist me in obtaining the crown of England after King 
Edward's death, to marry my daughter Adela, and to send me 
thy sister, that I may give her in marriage to one of my barons." 
Harold, once more taken by surprise, and not able to deny his 
former words, approached the missal, and laid his hand on it, 
not knowing that the chest of relics was beneath. The old 
Norman chronicler, who describes the scene most minutely,* 
says, when Harold placed his hand on it, the hand trembled 
and the flesh quivered ; but he swore, and promised upon his 
oath, to take Ele [Adela] to wife, and to deliver up England to 

* Wace, " Roman de Rou." I have nearly followed his words. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. \W 

the duke, and thereunto to do all in his power, according to his 
might and wit, after the death of Edward, if he himself should 
live : so help him God. Many cried, " God grant it !" and when 
Harold rose from his knees the duke made him stand close to 
the chest, and took off the pall that had covered it, and showed 
Harold upon what holy relics he had sworn ; and Harold was 
sorely alarmed at the sight. 

Harold was soon after this permitted to return to England ; 
and, after a short interval, during which he distinguished him- 
self by the wisdom and humanity with which he pacified some 
formidable tumults of the Anglo-Danes in Northumbria, he 
found himself called on to decide whether he would keep the 
oath which the Norman had obtained from him, or mount the 
vacant throne of England in compliance with the nation's 
choice. King Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of Janu- 
ary, 1066, and on the following day an assembly of the thanes 
and prelates present in London, and of the citizens of the me- 
tropolis, declared that Harold should be their king. It was re- 
ported that the dying Edward had nominated him as his suc- 
cessor ; but the sense which his countrymen entertained of his 
pre-eminent merit was the true foundation of his title to the 
crown. Harold resolved to disregard the oath which he made 
in Normandy, as violent and void, and on the 7th day of that 
January he was anointed King of England, and received from 
the archbishop's hands the golden crown and sceptre of Eng- 
land, and also an ancient national symbol, a weighty battle-axe. 
He had deep and speedy need of this significant part of the 
insignia of Saxon royalty. 

A messenger from Normandy soon arrived to remind Harold 
of the oath which he had sworn to the duke " with his mouth, 
and his hand upon good and holy relics." " It is true," replied 
the Saxon king, " that I took an oath to William ; but I took it 
under constraint : I promised what did not belong to me — what 
I could not in any way hold : my royalty is not my own ; I 
could not lay it down against the will of the country, nor can I 
against the will of the country take a foreign wife. As for my 
sister, whom the duke claims, that he may marry her to one of 
his chiefs, she has died within the year ; would he have me 
send her corpse ?" 

William sent another message, which met with a similar an- 
swer ; and then the duke published far and wide through 
Christendom what he termed the perjury and bad faith of his 
rival, and proclaimed his intention of asserting his rights by 



178 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

the sword before the year should expire, and of pursuing and 
punishing the perjurer even in those places where he thought he 
stood most strongly and most securely. 

Before, however, he commenced hostilities, William, with deep- 
laid policy, submitted his claims to the decision of the pope. 
Harold refused to acknowledge this tribunal, or to answer be- 
fore an Italian priest for his title as an English king. After a 
formal examination of William's complaints by the pope and 
the cardinals, it was solemnly adjudged at Rome that Eng- 
land belonged to the Norman duke ; and a banner was sent to 
William from the holy see, which the pope himself had con- 
secrated and blessed for the ^invasion of this island. The clergy 
throughout the continent were now assiduous and energetic in 
preaching up William's enterprise as undertaken in the cause 
of God. Besides these spiritual arms (the effect of which in 
the eleventh century must not be measured by the philosophy 
or the indifferentism of the nineteenth), the Norman duke 
applied all the energies of his mind and body, all the resources 
of his duchy, and all the influence he possessed among vassals 
or allies, to the collection of " the most remarkable and formi- 
dable armament which the Western nations had witnessed."* 
All the adventurous spirits of Christendom flocked to the holy 
banner, under which Duke William, the most renowned knight 
and sagest general of the age, promised to lead them to glory 
and wealth in the fair domains of England. His army was 
filled with the chivalry of continental Europe, all eager to save 
their souls by fighting at the pope's bidding, ardent to signalize 
their valor in so great an enterprise, and longing also for the 
pay and the plunder which William liberally promised. But 
the Normans themselves were the pith and the flower of the 
army ; and "William himself was the strongest, the sagest, and 
fiercest spirit of them all. 

Throughout the spring and summer of 1066, all the seaports 
of Normandy, Picardy, and Brittany rang with the busy sound 
of preparation. On the opposite side of the Channel, King 
Harold collected the army and the fleet with which he hoped to 
crush the southern invaders. But the unexpected attack of 
King Harold Hardrada of Norway upon another part of Eng- 
land disconcerted the skilful measures which the Saxon had 
taken against the menacing armada of Duke William. 

Harold's renegade brother, Earl Tostig, had excited the 

* Sir James Mackintosh's " History of England," vol. i., p. 97. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 179 

Norse king to this enterprise, the importance of which has 
naturally been eclipsed by the superior interest attached to the 
victorious expedition of Duke William, but which was on a 
scale of grandeur which the Scandinavian ports had rarely, if 
ever before, witnessed. Hardrada's fleet consisted of two hun- 
dred war-ships and three hundred other vessels, and all the 
best warriors of Norway were in his host. He sailed first to 
the Orkneys, where many of the islanders joined him, and then 
to Yorkshire. After a severe conflict near York, he completely 
routed Earls Edwin and Morcar, the governors of Northumbria. 
The city of York opened its gates, and all the country, from 
the Tyne to the Humber, submitted to him. The tidings of 
the defeat of Edwin and Morcar compelled Harold to leave his 
position on the southern coast, and move instantly against the 
Norwegians. By a remarkably rapid march he reached York- 
shire in four days, and took the Norse king and his confederates 
by surprise. Nevertheless, the battle which ensued, and which 
was fought near Stamford Bridge, was desperate and was long 
doubtful. Unable to break the ranks of the Norwegian phalanx 
by force, Harold at length tempted them to quit their close 
order by a pretended flight. Then the English columns burst 
in among them, and a carnage ensued, the extent of which may 
be judged of by the exhaustion and inactivity of Norway for a 
quarter of a century afterwards. King Harald Hardrada, and 
all the flower of his nobility, perished on the 25th of Septem- 
ber, 1066, at Stamford Bridge; a battle which was a Flodden 
to Norway. 

Harold's victory was splendid ; but he had bought it dearly 
by the fall of many of his best officers and men ; and still more 
dearly by the opportunity which Duke William had gained of 
effecting an unopposed landing on the Sussex coast. The 
whole of William's shipping had assembled at the mouth of the 
Dive, a little river between the Seine and the Orme, as early as 
the middle of August. The army which he had collected 
amounted to fifty thousand knights, and ten thousand soldiers 
of inferior degree. Many of the knights were mounted, but 
many must have served on foot ; as it is hardly possible to be- 
lieve that William could have found transports for the convey- 
ance of fifty thousand war-horses across the Channel. For a 
long time the winds were adverse ; and the duke employed the 
interval that passed before he could set sail in completing the 
organization and in improving the discipline of his army, which 
he seems to have brought into the same state of perfection as 



180 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

was seven centuries and a half afterwards the boast of another 
army assembled on the same coast, and which Napoleon designed 
(but providentially in vain) for a similar descent upon England. 

It was not till the approach of the equinox that the wind 
veered from the northeast to the west, and gave the Normans an 
opportunity of quitting the weary shores of the Dive. They 
eagerly embarked and set sail ; but the wind soon freshened to 
a gale, and drove them along the French coast to St. Valery, 
where the greater part of them found shelter ; but many of their 
vessels were wrecked, and the whole coast of Normandy was 
strewn with the bodies of the drowned. William's army began 
to grow discouraged and averse to the enterprise, which the 
very elements thus seemed to fight against ; though in reality 
the northeast wind which had cooped them so long at the 
mouth of the Dive, and the western gale which had forced them 
into St. Valery, were the best possible friends to the invaders. 
They prevented the Normans from crossing the Channel until 
the Saxon king and his army of defence had been called away 
from the Sussex coast to encounter Harald Hardrada in York- 
shire ; and also until a formidable English fleet, which by King 
Harold's orders had been cruising in the Channel to intercept 
the Normans, had been obliged to disperse temporarily for the 
purpose of refitting and taking in fresh stores of provisions. 

Duke William used every expedient to reanimate the droop- 
ing spirits of his men at St. Valery ; and at last he caused the 
body of the patron saint of the place to be exhumed and carried 
in solemn procession, while the whole assemblage of soldiers, 
mariners, and appurtenant priests implored the saint's interces- 
sion for a change of wind. That very night the wind veered, 
and enabled the mediaeval Agamemnon to quit his Aulis. 

With full sails, and a following southern breeze, the Norman 
armada left the French shores and steered for England. The 
invaders crossed an undefended sea, and found an undefended 
coast. It was in Pevensey Bay in Sussex, at Bulverhithe, be- 
tween the castle of Pevensey and Hastings, that the last con- 
querors of this island landed, on the 29th of September, 1066. 

Harold was at York, rejoicing over his recent victory, which 
had delivered England from her ancient Scandinavian foes, and 
resettling the government of the counties which Harald Har- 
drada had overrun, when the tidings reached him that Duke 
William of Normandy and his host had landed on the Sussex 
shore. Harold instantly hurried southward to meet this long- 
expected enemy. The severe loss which his army had sustained 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 181 

in the battle with the Norwegians must have made it impossible 
for any large number of veteran troops to accompany him in his 
forced march to London, and thence to Sussex. He halted at 
the capital only six days ; and during that time gave orders for 
collecting forces from his southern and midland counties, and 
also directed his fleet to reassemble off the Sussex coast. Har- 
old was well received in London, and his summons to arms was 
promptly obeyed by citizen, by thane, by sokman, and by ceorl ; 
for he had shown himself during his brief reign a just and wise 
king, affable to all men, active for the good of his country, and 
(in the words of the old historian) sparing himself from no fa- 
tigue by land or sea.* He might have gathered a much more 
numerous force than that of William, but his recent victory had 
made him over-confident, and he was irritated by the reports of 
the country being ravaged by the invaders. As soon, therefore, 
as he had collected a small army in London, he marched off 
towards the coast ; pressing forward as rapidly as his men could 
traverse Surrey and Sussex, in the hope of taking the Normans 
unawares, as he had recently by a similar forced march suc- 
ceeded in surprising the Norwegians. But he had now to deal 
with a foe equally brave with Harald Hardrada, and far more 
skilful and wary. 

The old Norman chroniclers describe the preparations of Will- 
iam on his landing with a graphic vigor which would be wholly 
lost by transfusing their racy Norman couplets and terse Latin 
prose into the current style of modern history. It is best to fol- 
low them closely, though at the expense of much quaintness 
and occasional uncouthness of expression. They tell us how 
Duke William's own ship was the first of the Norman fleet. " It 
was called the Mora, and was the gift of his duchess, Matilda. 
On the head of the ship in the front, which mariners call the 
prow, there was a brazen child bearing an arrow with a bended 
bow. His face was turned towards England, and thither he 
looked, as though he were about to shoot. The breeze became 
soft and sweet, and the sea was smooth for their landing. The 
ships ran on dry land, and each ranged by the other's side. 
There you might see the good sailors, the sergeants, and squires 
sally forth and unload the ships ; cast the anchors, haul the 
ropes, bear out shields and saddles, and land the war-horses and 
palfreys. The archers came forth, and touched land the first, 



* See Roger de Hoveden and William of Malmesbury, cited in Thierry, 
book iii. 



182 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

each with his bow strung, and with his quiver full of arrows, 
slung at his side. All were shaven and shorn ; and all clad in 
short garments, ready to attack, to shoot, to wheel about and 
skirmish. All stood well equipped, and of good courage for the 
fight ; and they scoured the whole shore, but found not an 
armed man there. After the archers had thus gone forth, the 
knights landed all armed, with their hauberks on, their shields 
slung at their necks, and their helmets laced. They formed to- 
gether on the shore, each armed, and mounted on his war-horse : 
all had their swords girded on, and rode forward into the coun- 
try with their lances raised. Then the carpenters landed, who 
had great axes in their hands, and planes and adzes hung at their 
sides. They took counsel together, and sought for a good spot 
to place a castle on. They had brought with them in the fleet 
three wooden castles from Normandy, in pieces, all ready for 
framing together, and they took the materials of one of these 
out of the ships, all shaped and pierced to receive the pins 
which they had brought cut and ready in large barrels ; and be- 
fore evening had set in they had finished a good fort on the 
English ground, and there they placed their stores. All then 
ate and drank enough, and were right glad that they were 
ashore. 

" When Duke William himself landed, as he stepped on the 
shore, he slipped and fell forward upon his two hands. Forth- 
with all raised a loud cry of distress. ' An evil sign,' said they, 
' is here.' But he cried out lustily, ' See, my lords ! by the 
splendor of God,* I have taken possession of England with both 
my hands. It is now mine ; and what is mine is yours.' 

" The next day they marched along the sea-shore to Hastings. 
Near that place the duke fortified a camp, and set up the two 
other wooden castles. The foragers, and those who looked out 
for booty, seized all the clothing and provisions they could find, 
lest what had been brought by the ships should fail them. And 
the English were to be seen fleeing before them, driving off 
their cattle, and quitting their houses. Many took shelter in 
burying-places, and even there they were in grievous alarm." 

Besides the marauders from the Norman camp, strong bodies 
of cavalry were detached by William into the country, and these, 
when Harold and his army made their rapid march from Lon- 
don southward, fell back in good order upon the main body of 
the Normans, and reported that the Saxon king was rushing on 

* William's customary oath. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 183 

like a madman. But Harold, when he found that his hopes of 
surprising his adversary were vain, changed his tactics, and 
halted about seven miles from the Norman lines. He sent some 
spies, who spoke the French language, to examine the number 
and preparations of the enemy, who, on their return, related 
with astonishment that there were more priests in William's 
camp than there were fighting men in the English army. They 
had mistaken for priests all the Norman soldiers who had short 
hair and shaven chins ; for the English laymen were then ac- 
customed to wear long hair and mustaehios. Harold, who knew 
the Norman usages, smiled at their words and said, " Those 
whom you have seen in such numbers are not priests, but stout 
soldiers, as they will soon make us feel." 

Harold's army was far inferior in number to that of the Nor- 
mans, and some of his captains advised him to retreat upon 
London, and lay waste the country, so as to starve down the 
strength of the invaders. The policy thus recommended was 
unquestionably the wisest ; for the Saxon fleet had now reas- 
sembled, and intercepted all William's communications with 
Normandy ; so that as soon as his stores of provisions were ex- 
hausted he must have moved forward upon London ; where 
Harold, at the head of the full military strength of the king- 
dom, could have defied his assault, and probably might have 
witnessed his rival's destruction by famine and disease, without 
having to strike a single blow. But Harold's bold blood was 
up, and his kindly heart could not endure to inflict on his South 
Saxon subjects even the temporary misery of wasting the coun- 
try. " He would not burn houses and villages, neither would he 
take away the substance of his people." 

Harold's brothers, Gurth and Leofwine, were with him in the 
camp, and Gurth endeavored to persuade him to absent himself 
from the battle. The incident shows how well devised had 
been William's scheme of binding Harold by the oath on the 
holy relics. " My brother," said the young Saxon prince, " thou 
canst not deny that either by force or free-will thou hast made 
Duke William an oath on the bodies of saints. Why then risk 
thyself in the battle with a perjury upon thee? To us, who 
have sworn nothing, this is a holy and a just war, for we are 
fighting for our country. Leave us, then, alone to fight this 
battle, and he who has the right will win." Harold replied that 
he would not look on while others risked their lives for him. 
Men would hold him a coward, and blame him for sending his 
best friends where he dared not go himself. He resolved, there- 



184 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

fore, to fight, and to fight in person ; but he was still too good 
a general to be the assailant in the action. He strengthened his 
position on the hill where he had halted, by a palisade of stakes 
interlaced with osier hurdles, and there, he said, he would de- 
fend himself against whoever should seek him, 

The ruins of Battle Abbey at this hour attest the place where 
Harold's army was posted. The high altar of the abbey stood 
on the very spot where Harold's own standard was planted dur- 
ing the fight, and where the carnage was the thickest. Imme- 
diately after his victory William vowed to build an abbey on the 
site ; and a fair and stately pile soon rose there, where for many 
ages the monks prayed and said masses for the souls of those 
who were slain in the battle, whence the abbey took its name. 
Before that time the place was called Senlac. Little of the an- 
cient edifice now remains; but it is easy to trace among its 
relics and in the neighborhood the scenes of the chief incidents 
in the action ; and it is impossible to deny the generalship 
shown by Harold in stationing his men ; especially when we 
bear in mind that he was deficient in cavalry, the arm in which 
his adversary's main strength consisted. 

A neck of hills trends inward for nearly seven miles from 
the high ground immediately to the northeast of Hastings. 
The line of this neck of hills is from southeast to northwest, 
and the usual route from Hastings to London must, in ancient 
as in modern times, have been along its summits. At the dis- 
tance from Hastings which has been mentioned, the continuous 
chain of hills ceases. A valley must be crossed, and on the 
other side of it, opposite to the last of the neck of hills, rises a 
high ground of some extent, facing to the southeast. This 
high ground, then termed Senlac, was occupied by Harold's 
army. It could not be attacked in front without considerable 
disadvantage to the assailants, and could hardly be turned with- 
out those engaged in the manoeuvre exposing themselves to a 
fatal charge in flank, while they wound round the base of the 
height, and underneath the ridges which project from it on 
either side. There was a rough and thickly wooded district in 
the rear, which seemed to offer Harold great facilities for rally- 
ing his men, and checking the progress of the enemy, if they 
should succeed in forcing him back from his post. And it 
seemed scarcely possible that the Normans, if they met with 
any repulse, could save themselves from utter destruction. 
With such hopes and expectations (which cannot be termed un- 
reasonable, though " Successum Dea dira negavit ") King Har- 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 



185 



old bade his standard be set up a little way down the slope of 
Senlac-hill, at the point where the ascent from the valley was 
least steep, and on which the fiercest attacks of the advancing 
enemy were sure to be directed. 

The foundation-stones of the high altar of Battle Abbey have 
during late years been discovered ; and we may place our feet 




PLAN OF BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 



on the very spot where Harold stood, with England's banner 
waving over him ; where, when the battle was joined, he de- 
fended himself to the utmost; where the fatal arrow came down 
on him ; where he " leaned in agony on his shield ;" and where 
at last he was beaten to the earth, and with him the Saxon ban- 
ner was beaten down, like him never to rise again. The ruins 
of the altar are a little to the west of the high road, which leads 
from Hastings along the neck of hills already described, across 
the valley, and through the modern town of Battle, towards 



186 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

London. Before a railway was made along this valley, some of 
the old local features were more easy than now to recognize. 
The eye then at once saw that the ascent from the valley was 
least steep at the point which Harold selected for his own post 
in the engagement. But this is still sufficiently discernible ; 
and we can fix the spot, a little lower down the slope, immedi- 
ately in front of the high altar, where the brave Kentish men 
stood, " whose right it was to strike first whenever the king 
went to battle," and who, therefore, were placed where the Nor- 
mans would be most likely to make their first charge. Round 
Harold himself, and where the plantations wave which now sur- 
round the high altar's ruins, stood the men of London, " whose 
privilege it was to guard the king's body, to place themselves 
around it, and to guard his standard." On the right and left 
were ranged the other warriors of central and southern England, 
whose shires the old Norman chronicler distorts in his French 
nomenclature. Looking thence in the direction of Hastings, we 
can distinguish the "ridge of the rising ground over which the 
Normans appeared advancing." It is the nearest of the neck of 
hills. It is along that hill that Harold and his brothers saw ap- 
proach in succession the three divisions of the Norman army. 
The Normans came down that slope, and then formed in the 
valley, so as to assault the whole front of the English position. 
Duke William's own division, with " the best men and greatest 
strength of the army," made the Norman centre, and charged 
the English immediately in front of Harold's banner, as the 
nature of the ground had led the Saxon king to anticipate. 

There are few battles the localities of which can be more com- 
pletely traced ; and the whole scene is fraught with associa- 
tions of deep interest ; but the spot which, most of all, awakens 
our sympathy and excites our feelings, is that where Harold 
himself fought and fell. The crumbling fragments of the gray 
altar-stones, with the wild-flowers that cling around their base, 
seem fitting memorials of the brave Saxon who there bowed his 
head in death ; while the laurel-trees that are planted near, and 
wave over the ruins, remind us of the Conqueror, who there, at 
the close of that dreadful day, reared his victorious standard 
high over the trampled banner of the Saxon, and held his trium- 
phant carousal amid the corses of the slain, with his Norman 
chivalry exulting around him. 

When it was known in the invaders' camp at Hastings that 
King Harold had marched southward with his power, but a brief 
interval ensued before the two hosts met in decisive encounter. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 18V 

William's only chance of safety lay in bringing on a general 
engagement ; and lie joyfully advanced his army from their camp 
on the hill over Hastings, nearer to the Saxon position. But 
he neglected no means of weakening his opponent, and renewed 
his summonses and demands on Harold with an ostentatious air 
of sanctity and moderation. 

" A monk named Hugues Maigrot came in William's name to 
call upon the Saxon king to do one of three things — either to 
resign his royalty in favor of William, or to refer it to the arbi- 
tration of the pope to decide which of the two ought to be king, 
or to let it be determined by the issue of a single combat. 
Harold abruptly replied, ' I will not resign my title, I will not 
refer it to the pope, nor will I accept the single combat.' He 
was far from being deficient in bravery ; but he was no more at 
liberty to stake the crown which he had received from a whole 
people on the chance of a duel than to deposit it in the hands 
of an Italian priest. William was not at all ruffled by the Sax- 
on's refusal, but steadily pursuing the course of his calculated 
measures, sent the Norman monk again, after giving him these 
instructions : ' Go and tell Harold that if he will keep his 
former compact with me, I will leave to him all the country 
which is beyond the Humber, and will give his brother Gurth 
all the lands which Godwin held. If he still persist in refusing 
my offers, then thou shalt tell him, before all his people, that he 
is a perjurer and a liar; that he, and all who shall support him, 
are excommunicated by the mouth of the pope ; and that the 
bull to that effect is in my hands.' 

" Hugues Maigrot delivered this message in a solemn tone ; 
and the Norman chronicle says that at the word excommunication 
the English chiefs looked at one another as if some great danger 
were impending. One of them then spoke as follows : i We 
must fight, whatever may be the danger to us ; for what we have 
to consider is not whether we shall accept and receive a new 
lord as if our king were dead : the case is quite otherwise. The 
Norman has given our lands to his captains, to his knights, to 
all his people, the greater part of whom have already done 
homage to him for them ; they will all look for their gift, if 
their duke become our king; and he himself is bound to de- 
liver up to them our goods, our wives, and our daughters : all is 
promised to them beforehand. They come, not only to ruin us, 
but to ruin our descendants also, and to take from us the coun- 
try of our ancestors. And what shall we do — whither shall we 
go — when we have no longer a country ?' The English promised, 



188 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

by a unanimous oath, to make neither peace nor truce not* 
treaty with the invader, but to die or drive away the Nor- 
mans."* 

The 13th of October was occupied in these negotiations ; and 
at night the duke announced to his men that the next day would 
be the day of battle. That night is said to have been passed by 
the two armies in very different manners. The Saxon soldiers 
spent it in joviality, singing their national songs, and draining 
huge horns of ale and wine round their camp-fires. The Nor- 
mans, when they had looked to their arms and horses, confessed 
themselves to the priests, with whom their camp was thronged, 
and received the sacrament by thousands at a time. 

On Saturday, the 14th of October, was fought the great bat- 
tle. 

It is not difficult to compose a narrative of its principal inci- 
dents, from the historical information which we possess, espe- 
cially if aided by an examination of the ground. But it is far 
better to adopt the spirit-stirring words of the old chroniclers, 
who wrote while the recollections of the battle were yet fresh, 
and while the feelings and prejudices of the combatants yet 
glowed in the bosoms of their near descendants. Robert Wace, 
the Norman poet, who presented his "Roman de Rou" to our 
Henry II., is the most picturesque and animated of the old 
writers ; and from him we can obtain a more vivid and full de- 
scription of the conflict than even the most brilliant romance- 
writer of the present time can supply. We have also an antique 
memorial of the battle, more to be relied on than either chron- 
icler or poet (and which confirms Wace's narrative remarkably), 
in the celebrated Bayeux tapestry, which represents tfre princi- 
pal scenes of Duke William's expedition, and of the circum- 
stances connected with it, in minute though occasionally gro- 
tesque details, and which was undoubtedly the production of the 
same age in which the battle took place, whether we admit or 
reject the legend that Queen Matilda and the ladies of her court 
wrought it with their own hands in honor of the royal Con- 
queror. 

Let us therefore suffer the old Norman chronicler to transport 
our imaginations to the fair Sussex scenery, northwest of Hast- 
ings, with its breezy uplands, its grassy slopes, and ridges of 
open down swelling inland from the sparkling sea, its scattered 
copses, and its denser glades of intervening forests, clad in all 

* Thierry. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 189 

the varied tints of autumn, as they appeared on the morning of 
the fourteenth of October, seven hundred and eighty-five years 
ago. The Norman host is pouring forth from its tents ; and 
each troop, and each company, is forming fast under the banner 
of its leader. The masses have been sung, which were finished 
betimes in the morning; the barons have all assembled round 
Duke William ; and the duke has ordered that the army shall 
be formed in three divisions, so as to make the attack upon the 
Saxon position in three places. The duke stood on a hill where 
he could best see his men ; the barons surrounded him, and he 
spake to them proudly. He told them how he trusted them, 
and how all that he gained should be theirs ; and how sure he 
felt of conquest, for in all the world there was not so brave an 
army or such good men and true as were then forming around 
him. Then they cheered him in turn, and cried out, " ' You 
will not see one coward ; none here will fear to die for love of 
you, if need be.' And he answered them, * I thank you well. 
For God's sake spare not ; strike hard at the beginning ; stay 
not to take spoil ; all the booty shall be in common, and there 
will be plenty for every one. There will be no safety in asking 
quarter or in flight : the English will never love or spare a Nor- 
man. Felons they were, and felons they are ; false they were, 
and false they will be. Show no weakness towards them, for 
they will have no pity on you. Neither the coward for running 
well, nor the bold man for smiting well, will be the better liked 
by the English, nor will any be the more spared on either ac- 
count. You may fly to the sea, but you can fly no farther ; you 
will find neither ships nor bridge there ; there will be no sailors 
to receive you ; and the English will overtake you there and slay 
you in your shame. More of you will die in flight than in the 
battle. Then, as flight will not secure you, fight, and you will 
conquer. I have no doubt of the victory : we are come for 
glory, the victory is in our hands, and we may make sure of ob- 
taining it if we so please.' As the duke was speaking thus, 
and would yet have spoken more, ^William Fitz Osber rode up, 
with his horse all coated with iron : ' Sire,' said he, ' we tarry 
here too long, let us all arm ourselves. Allons! AllonsP 

" Then all went to their tents, and armed themselves as they 
best might ; and the duke was very busy, giving every one his 
orders ; and he was courteous to all the vassals, giving away 
many arms and horses to them. When he prepared to arm him- 
self, he called first for his good hauberk, and a man brought it 
on his arm, and placed it before him, but in putting his head in, 



190 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

to get it on, he unawares turned it the wrong way, with the back 
part in front. He soon changed it, but when he saw that those 
who stood by were sorely alarmed, he said, ' I have seen many 
a man who, if such a thing had happened to him, would not have 
borne arms, or entered the field the same day ; but I never be- 
lieved in omens, and I never will. I trust in God, for he does 
in all things his pleasure, and ordains what is to come to pass, 
according to his will. I have never liked fortune-tellers, nor 
believed in diviners ; but I commend myself to our Lady. Let 
not this mischance give you trouble. The hauberk which was 
turned wrong, and then set right by me, signifies that a change 
will arise out of the matter which we are now stirring. You 
shall see the name of duke changed into king. Yea, a king 
shall I be, who hitherto have been but duke.' Then he crossed 
himself, and straightway took his hauberk, stooped his head, 
and put it on aright, and laced his helmet, and girt on his sword, 
which a varlet brought him. Then the duke called for his good 
horse — a better could not be found. It had been sent him by 
a king of Spain, out of very great friendship. Neither arms nor 
the press of fighting men did it fear, if its lord spurred it on. 
Walter Giffard brought it. The duke stretched out his hand, 
took the reins, put foot in stirrup, and mounted ; and the good 
horse pawed, pranced, reared himself up, and curveted. The 
Viscount of Toarz saw how the duke bore himself in arms, and 
said to his people that were around him, ' Never have I seen a 
man so fairly armed, nor one who rode so gallantly, or bore his 
arms or became his hauberk so well ; neither any one who bore 
his lance so gracefully, or sat his horse and managed him so 
nobly. There is no such knight under heaven ! a fair count he 
is, and fair king he will be. Let him fight, and he shall over- 
come : shame be to the man who shall fail him.' 

♦'Then the duke called for the standard which the pope had 
sent him, and he who bore it having unfolded it, the duke took 
it, and called to Raol de Conches. ' Bear my standard,' said he, 
' for I would not but do you right ; by right and by ancestry 
your line are standard-bearers of Normandy, and very good 
knights have they all been.' But Raol said that he would serve 
the duke that day in other guise, and would fight the English 
with his hand as long as life should last. Then the duke bade 
Galtier Giffart bear the standard. But he was old and white- 
headed, and bade the duke give the standard to some younger 
and stronger man to carry. Then the duke said fiercely, ' By 
the splendor of God, my lords, I think you mean to betray and 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 191 

fail me in this great need.' ' Sire,' said Giffart, ' not so ! we 
have done no treason, nor do I refuse from any felony towards 
you ; but I have to lead a great chivalry, both hired men and 
the men of my fief. Never had I such good means of serving 
you as I now have ; and if God please, I will serve you ; if need 
be, I will die for you, and will give my own heart for yours.' 

" ' By my faith,' quoth the duke, ' I always loved thee, and 
now I love thee more ; if I survive this day, thou shalt be the 
better for it all thy days.' Then he called out a knight, whom 
he had heard much praised, Tosteins Fitz-Rou le Blanc by name, 
whose abode was at Bec-en-Caux. To him he delivered the 
standard ; and Tosteins took it right cheerfully, and bowed low 
to him in thanks, and bore it gallantly, and with good heart. 
His kindred still have quittance of all service for their inherit- 
ance on that account, and their heirs are entitled so to hold their 
inheritance forever. 

" William sat on his war-horse, and called on Rogier, whom 
they call De Mongomeri. ' I rely much upon you,' said he ; 
* lead your men thitherward, and attack them from that side. 
William, the son of Osber the seneschal, a right good vassal, 
shall go with you and help in the attack, and you shall have the 
men of Boulogne and Poix, and all my soldiers. Alain Fergert 
and Ameri shall attack on the other side ; they shall lead the 
Poitevins and the Bretons, and all the barons of Maine ; and I, 
with my own great men, my friends and kindred, will fight in 
the middle throng, where the battle shall be the hottest.' 

" The barons, and knights, and men-at-arms were all now 
armed ; the foot-soldiers were well equipped, each bearing bow 
and sword ; on their heads were caps, and to their feet were 
bound buskins. Some had good hides which they had bound 
round their bodies ; and many were clad in frocks, and had 
quivers and bows hung to their girdles. The knights had hau- 
berks and swords, boots of steel and shining helmets ; shields 
at their necks, and in their hands lances. And all had their 
cognizances, so that each might know his fellow, and Norman 
might not strike Norman, nor Frenchman kill his countryman 
by mistake. Those on foot led the way, with serried ranks, 
bearing their bows. The knights rode next, supporting the 
archers from behind. Thus both horse and foot kept their 
course and order of march as they began ; in close ranks, at a 
gentle pace, that the one might not pass or separate from the 
other. All went firmly and compactly, bearing themselves gal- 
lantly. 



192 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

" Harold had summoned his men, earls, barons, and vavas- 
sours, from the castles and the cities ; from the ports, the vil- 
lages, and boroughs. The peasants were also called together 
from the villages, bearing such arms as they found ; clubs and 
great picks, iron forks and stakes. The English had enclosed 
the place where Harold was, with his friends and the barons of 
the country whom he had summoned and called together. 

" Those of London had come at once, and those of Kent, 
Hertf ort, and of Essesse ; those of Suree and Susesse, of St. 
Edmund and Suf oc ; of Norwis and Norf oc ; of Cantorbierre 
and Stanfort ; Bedefort and Hundetone. The men of Northan- 
ton also came ; and those of Eurowic and Bokinkeham, of Bed 
and Notinkeham, Lindesie and Nichole. There came also from 
the west all who heard the summons ; and very many were to 
be seen coming from Salebiere and Dorset, from Bat and from 
Somerset. Many came, too, from about Glocestre, and many 
from Wirecestre, from Wincestre, Hontesire, and Brichesire ; 
and many more from other counties that we have not named, 
and cannot indeed recount. All who could bear arms, and had 
learned the news of the duke's arrival, came to defend the land. 
But none came from beyond Humbre, for they had other business 
upon their hands ; the Danes and Tosti having much damaged 
and weakened them. 

" Harold knew that the Normans would come and attack him 
hand to hand ; so he had early enclosed the field in which he 
placed his men. He made them arm early, and range themselves 
for the battle ; he himself having put on arms and equipments 
that became such a lord. The duke, he said, ought to seek him, 
as he wanted to conquer England ; and it became him to abide 
the attack, who had to defend the land. He commanded the 
people, and counselled his barons to keep themselves all together, 
and defend themselves in a body ; for if they once separated, 
they would with difficulty recover themselves. ' The Normans/ 
he said, i are good vassals, valiant on foot and on horseback ; 
good knights are they on horseback, and well used to battle ; all 
is lost if they once penetrate our ranks. They have brought 
long lances and swords, but you have pointed lances and keen- 
edged bills ; and I do not expect that their arms can stand 
against yours. Cleave wherever you can ; it will be ill done if 
you spare aught.' 

" The English had built up a fence before them with their 
shields and with ash and other wood ; and had well joined and 
wattled in the whole work, so as not to leave even a crevice ; 



JSATTLE OF HASTINGS. 193 

and thus they had a barricade in their front through which any 
Norman who would attack them must first pass. Being covered 
in this way by their shields and barricades, their aim was to de- 
fend themselves ; and if they had remained steady for that pur- 
pose they would not have been conquered that day ; for every 
Norman who made his way in lost his life, either by hatchet or 
bill, by club, or other weapons. They wore short and close hau- 
berks, and helmets that hung over their garments. King Harold 
issued orders and made proclamation round that all should be 
ranged with their faces towards the enemy ; and that no one 
should move from where he was ; so that, whoever came, might 
find them ready ; and that whatever any one, be he Norman or 
other, should do, each should do his best to defend his own 
place. Then he ordered the men of Kent to go where the Nor- 
mans were likely to make the attack ; for they say that the men 
of Kent are entitled to strike first ; and that whenever the king 
goes to battle, the first blow belongs to them. The right of the 
men of London is to guard the king's body, to place themselves 
around him, and to guard his standard ; and they were accord- 
ingly placed by the standard to watch and defend it. 

" When Harold had made his reply and given his orders, he 
came into the midst of the English, and dismounted by the side 
of the standard: Leofwin and Gurth, his brothers, were with 
him, and around him he had barons enough, as he stood by his 
standard, which was in truth a noble one, sparkling with gold 
and precious stones. After the victory, William sent it to the 
pope, to prove and commemorate his great conquest and glory. 
The English stood in close ranks, ready and eager for the fight ; 
and they moreover made a fosse, which went across the field, 
guarding one side of their army. 

" Meanwhile the Normans appeared advancing over the ridge 
of a rising ground ; and the first division of their troops moved 
onwards along the hill and across a valley. And presently an- 
other division, still larger, came in sight, close following upon 
the first, and they were led towards another part of the field, 
forming together as the first body had done. And while Harold 
saw and examined them, and was pointing them out to Gurth, a 
fresh company came in sight, covering all the plain ; and in the 
midst of them was raised the standard that came from Rome. 
Near it was the duke, and the best men and greatest strength of 
the army were there. The good knights, the good vassals, and 
brave warriors were there ; and there were gathered together the 
gentle barons, the good archers, and the men-at-arms, whose duty 



194 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

it was to guard the duke, and range themselves around him. 
The youths and common herd of the camp, whose business was 
not to join in the battle, but to take care of the harness and 
stores, moved off towards a rising ground. The priests and the 
clerks also ascended a hill, there to offer up prayers to God, and 
watch the event of the battle. 

" The English stood firm on foot in close ranks, and carried 
themselves right boldly. Each man had his hauberk on, with 
his sword girt, and his shield at his neck. Great hatchets were 
also slung at their necks, with which they expected to strike 
heavy blows. 

" The Normans brought on the three divisions of their army 
to attack at different places. They set out in three companies, 
and in three companies did they fight. The first and second 
had come up, and then advanced the third, which was the great- 
est ; with that came the duke with his own men, and all moved 
boldly forward. 

" As soon as the two armies were in full view of each other, 
great noise and tumult arose. You might hear the sound of 
many trumpets, of bugles, and of horns ; and then you might 
see men ranging themselves in line, lifting their shields, raising 
their lances, bending their bows, handling their arrows, ready 
for assault and defence. 

"The English stood ready to their post, the Normans still 
moved on ; and when they drew near, the English were to be 
seen stirring to and fro ; were going and coming ; troops rang- 
ing themselves in order ; some with their color rising, others 
turning pale ; some making ready their arms, others raising 
their shields ; the brave man rousing himself to fight, the cow- 
ard trembling at the approach of danger. 

" Then Taillefer, who sang right well, rode mounted on a swift 
horse, before the duke, singing of Charlemagne and of Roland, 
of Olivier and the peers who died in Roncesvalles. And when 
they drew nigh to the English, ' A boon, sire !' cried Taillefer ; 
' I have long served you, and you owe me for all such service. 
To-day, so please you, you shall repay it. I ask as my guerdon, 
and beseech you for it earnestly, that you will allow me to strike 
the first blow in the battle !' And the duke answered, ' I grant 
it.' Then Taillefer put his horse to a gallop, charging before all 
the rest, and struck an Englishman dead, driving his lance be- 
low the breast into his body, and stretching him upon the ground. 
Then he drew his sword, and struck another, crying out, ' Come 
on, come on ! What do ye, sirs ? lay on, lay on !' At the sec- 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS: 195 

ond blow he struck, the English pushed forward, and surrounded 
and slew him. Forthwith arose the noise and cry of war, and 
on either side the people put themselves in motion. 

" The Normans moved on to the assault, and the English de- 
fended themselves well. Some were striking, others urging on- 
ward ; all were bold, and cast aside fear. And now, behold, 
that battle was gathered, whereof the fame is yet mighty. 

" Loud and far resounded the bray of the horns ; and the 
shocks of the lances, the mighty strokes of maces, and the quick 
clashing of swords. One while the Englishmen rushed on, an- 
other while they fell back ; one while the men from over the sea 
charged onward, and again at other times retreated. The Nor- 
mans shouted ' Dex aie !' the English people ' Out !' Then came 
the cunning manoeuvres, the rude shocks and strokes of the lance 
and blows of the swords, among the sergeants and soldiers, both 
English and Norman. 

" When the English fall, the Normans shout. Each side 
taunts and defies the other, yet neither knoweth what the other 
saith ; and the Normans say the English bark, because they un- 
derstand not their speech. 

"Some wax strong, others weak; the brave exult, but the 
cowards tremble, as men who are sore dismayed. The Normans 
press on the assault, and the English defend their post well ; 
they pierce the hauberks, and cleave the shields, receive and re- 
turn mighty blows. Again, some press forward, others yield ; 
and thus in various ways the struggle proceeds. In the plain 
was a fosse, which the Normans had now behind them, having 
passed it in the fight without regarding it. But the English 
charged, and drove the Normans before them till they made 
them fall back upon this fosse, overthrowing into it horses and 
men. Many were to be seen falling therein, rolling one over the 
other, with their faces to the earth, and unable to rise. Many 
of the English, also, whom the Normans drew down along with 
them, died there. At no time during the day's battle did so 
many Normans die as perished in that fosse. So those said 
who saw the dead. 

"The varlets who were set to guard the harness began to 
abandon it as they saw the loss of the Frenchmen, when thrown 
back upon the fosse without power to recover themselves. Be- 
ing greatly alarmed at seeing the difficulty in restoring order, 
they began to quit the harness, and sought around, not knowing 
where to find shelter. The Duke William's brother, Odo, the 
good priest, the Bishop of Bayeux, galloped up, and said to 



196 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

them, ' Stand fast ! stand fast ! be quiet and move not ! fear 
nothing, for if God please, we shall conquer yet.' So they took 
courage, and rested where they were ; and Odo returned gallop- 
ing back to where the battle was most fierce, and was of great 
service on that day. He had put a hauberk on, over a white 
aube, wide in the body, with the sleeve tight ; and sat on a white 
horse, so that all might recognize him. In his hand he held a 
mace, and wherever he saw most need he held up and stationed 
the knights, and often urged them on to assault and strike the 
enemy. 

" From nine o'clock in the morning, when the combat began, 
till three o'clock came, the battle was up and down, this way and 
that, and no one knew who would conquer and win the land. 
Both sides stood so firm and fought so well that no one could 
guess which would prevail. The Norman archers with their 
bows shot thickly upon the English ; but they covered them- 
selves with their shields, so that the arrows could not reach their 
bodies, nor do any mischief, how true soever was their aim, or 
however well they shot. Then the Normans determined to shoot 
their arrows upwards into the air, so that they might fall on their 
enemies' heads, and strike their faces. The archers adopted this 
scheme, and shot up into the air towards the English ; and the 
arrows in falling struck their heads and faces, and put out the 
eyes of many ; and all feared to open their eyes, or leave their 
faces unguarded. 

" The arrows now flew thicker than rain before the wind ; fast 
sped the shafts that the English called ' wibetes.* Then it was 
that an arrow, that had been thus shot upward, struck Harold 
above his right eye, and put it out. In his agony he drew the 
arrow and threw it away, breaking it with his hands ; and the 
pain to his head was so great that he leaned upon his shield. 
So the English were wont to say, and still say to the French, 
that the arrow was well shot which was so sent up against their 
king ; and that the archer won them great glory, who thus put 
out Harold's eye. 

" The Normans saw that the English defended themselves 
well, and were so strong in their position that they could do lit- 
tle against them. So they consulted together privily, and ar- 
ranged to draw off, and pretend to flee, till the English should 
pursue and scatter themselves over the field ; for they saw that 
if they could once get their enemies to break their ranks, they 
might be attacked and discomfited much more easily. As they 
.had said, so they did. The Normans by little and little fled, the 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 197 

English following them. As the one fell back, the other pressed 
after ; and when the Frenchmen retreated, the English thought 
and cried out that the men of France fled, and would never re- 
turn. 

" Thus they were deceived by the pretended flight, and great 
mischief thereby befell them ; for if they had not moved from 
their position, it is not likely that they would have been con- 
quered at all ; but like fools they broke their lines and pursued. 

" The Normans were to be seen following up their strata- 
gem, retreating slowly so as to draw the English farther on. 
As they still flee, the English pursue ; they push out their lances 
and stretch forth their hatchets ; following the Normans, as 
they go rejoicing in the success of their scheme, and scatter- 
ing themselves over the plain. And the English meantime 
jeered and insulted their foes with words. ' Cowards,' they 
cried, ' you came hither in an evil hour, wanting our lands, and 
seeking to seize our property, fools that ye were to come ! 
Normandy is too far off, and you will not easily reach it. It 
is of little use to run back; unless you can cross the sea at a 
leap, or can drink it dry, your sons and daughters are lost to 
you.' 

11 The Normans bore it all, but in fact they knew not what 
the English said : their language seemed like the baying of 
dogs, which they could not understand. At length they stop- 
ped and turned round, determined to recover their ranks ; and 
the barons might be heard crying ' Dex aie !' for a halt. Then 
the Normans resumed their former position, turning their faces 
towards the enemy ; and their men were to be seen facing 
round and rushing onward to a fresh melee; the one party 
assaulting the other ; this man striking, another pressing on- 
ward. One hits, another misses ; one flies, another pursues ; 
one is aiming a stroke, while another discharges his blow. 
Norman strives with Englishman again, and aims his blows 
afresh. One flies, another pursues swiftly ; the combatants are 
many, the plain wide, the battle and the melee fierce. On 
every hand they fight hard, the blows are heavy, and the 
struggle becomes fierce. 

" The Normans were playing their part well, when an Eng- 
lish knight came rushing up, having in his company a hundred 
men, furnished with various arms. He wielded a northern 
hatchet, with the blade a full foot long ; and was well armed 
after his manner, being tall, bold, and of noble carriage. In the 
front of the battle where the Normans thronged most, he came 



198 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

bounding, on swifter than the stag, many Normans falling be- 
fore him and his company. He rushed straight upon a Nor- 
man who was armed and riding on a war-horse, and tried with 
his hatchet of steel to cleave his helmet; but the blow mis- 
carried, and the sharp blade glanced down before the saddle- 
bow, driving through the horse's neck down to the ground, so 
that both horse and master fell together to the earth. I know 
not whether the Englishman struck another blow ; but the Nor- 
mans who saw the stroke were astonished, and about to aban- 
don the assault, when Roger de Mongomeri came galloping up, 
with his lance set, and heeding not the long-handled axe, which 
the Englishman wielded aloft, struck him down, and left him 
stretched upon the ground. Then Roger cried out, ' French- 
men, strike ! the day is ours !' And again a fierce melee was 
to be seen, with many a blow of lance and sword ; the English 
still defending themselves, killing the horses and cleaving the 
shields. 

" There was a French soldier of noble mien, who sat his horse 
gallantly. He spied two Englishmen who were also carrying 
themselves boldly. They were both men of great worth, and 
had become companions in arms and fought together, the one 
protecting the other. They bore two long and broad bills, and 
did great mischief to the Normans, killing both horses and men. 
The French soldier looked at them and their bills, and was 
sore alarmed, for he was afraid of losing his good horse, the 
best that he had ; and would willingly have turned to some 
other quarter, if it would not have looked like cowardice. He 
soon, however, recovered his courage, and, spurring his horse 
gave him the bridle, and galloped swiftly forward. Fearing 
the two bills, he raised his shield, and struck one of the Eng- 
lishmen with his lance on the breast, so that the iron passed 
out at his back. At the moment that he fell the lance broke, 
and the Frenchmen seized the mace that hung at his right side, 
and struck the other Englishman a blow that completely broke 
his skull. 

" On the other side was an Englishman who much annoyed 
the French, continually assaulting them with a keen-edged 
hatchet. He had a helmet made of wood, which he had fast- 
ened down to his coat, and laced round his neck, so that no 
blows could reach his head. The ravage he was making was 
seen by a gallant Norman knight, who rode a horse that neither 
fire nor water could stop in its career, when its master urged it 
on. The knight spurred, and his horse carried him on well till 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 199 

he charged the Englishman, striking him over the helmet, so 
that it fell down over his eyes ; and as he stretched out his hand 
to raise it and uncover the face, the Norman cut off his right 
hand, so that his hatchet fell to the ground. Another Nor- 
man sprang forward and eagerly seized the prize with both his 
hands, but he kept it little space, and paid dearly for it, for as 
he stooped to pick up the hatchet, an Englishman with his 
long-handled axe struck him over the back, breaking all his 
bones, so that his entrails and lungs gushed forth. The knight 
of the good horse meantime returned without injury ; but on 
his way he met another Englishman, and bore him down under 
his horse, wounding him grievously, and trampling him alto- 
gether under foot. 

" And now might be heard the loud clang and cry of battle, 
and the clashing of lances. The English stood firm in their 
barricades, and shivered the lances, beating them into pieces 
with their bills and maces. The Normans drew their swords, 
and hewed down the barricades, and the English in great 
trouble fell back upon their standard, where were collected the 
maimed and wounded. 

" There were many knights of Chauz, who jousted and made 
attacks. The English knew not how to joust, or bear arms on 
horseback, but fought with hatchets and bills. A man when 
he wanted to strike with one of their hatchets was obliged to 
hold it with both his hands, and could not at the same time, 
as it seems to me, both cover himself and strike with any 
freedom. 

" The English fell back towards the standard, which was upon 
a rising ground, and the Normans followed them across the 
valley, attacking them on foot and horseback. Then Hue de 
Mortemer, with the sires D'Auviler, D'Onebac, and St. Cler, 
rode up and charged, overthrowing many. 

" Robert Fitz Erneis fixed his lance, took his shield, and, gal- 
loping towards the standard, with his keen-edged sword struck 
an Englishman who was in front, killed him, and then, drawing 
back his sword, attacked many others, and pushed straight for 
the standard, trying to beat it down, but the English surrounded 
it, and killed him with their bills. He was found on the spot, 
when they afterwards sought for him, dead, and lying at the 
standard's foot. 

"Duke William pressed close upon the English with his 
lance ; striving hard to reach the standard with the great 
troop he led ; and seeking earnestly for Harold, on whose ac- 



200 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

count the whole war was. The Normans follow their lord, and 
press around him ; they ply their blows upon the English ; and 
these defend themselves stoutly, striving hard with their en- 
emies, returning blow for blow. 

" One of them was a man of great strength, a wrestler, who 
did great mischief to the Normans with his hatchet; all feared 
him, for he struck down a great many Normans. The duke 
spurred on his horse, and aimed a blow at him, but he stooped, 
and so escaped the stroke ; then jumping on one side, he lifted 
his hatchet aloft, and as the duke bent to avoid the blow the 
Englishman boldly struck him on the head, and beat in his hel- 
met, though without doing much injury. He was very near 
falling, however, but bearing on his stirrups he recovered him- 
self immediately ; and when he thought to have revenged him- 
self upon the churl by killing him, he had escaped, dreading 
the duke's blow. He ran back in among the English, but he 
was not safe even there ; for the Normans, seeing him, pursued 
and caught him ; and, having pierced him through and through 
with their lances, left him dead on the ground. 

" Where the throng of the battle was greatest, the men of 
Kent and Essex fought wondrously well, and made the Nor- 
mans again retreat, but without doing them much injury. And 
when the duke saw his men fall back and the English triumph- 
ing over them, his spirit rose high, and he seized his shield 
and his lance, which a vassal handed to him, and took his post 
by his standard. 

" Then those who kept close guard by him and rode where 
he rode, being about a thousand armed men, came and rushed 
with closed ranks upon the English ; and with the weight of 
their good horses, and the blows the knights gave, broke the 
press of the enemy, and scattered the crowd before them, the 
good duke leading them on in front. Many pursued and many 
fled ; many were the Englishmen who fell around, and were 
trampled under the horses, crawling upon the earth, and not 
able to rise. Many of the richest and noblest men fell in that 
rout, but the English still rallied in places ; smote down those 
whom they reached, and maintained the combat the best they 
could ; beating down the men and killing the horses. One 
Englishman watched the duke, and plotted to kill him ; he 
would have struck him with his lance, but he could not, for 
the duke struck him first, and felled him to the earth. 

" Loud was now the clamor, and great the slaughter ; many 
a soul then quitted the body it inhabited. The living marched 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 201 

over the heaps of dead, and each side was weary of strik- 
ing. He charged on who could, and he who could no longer 
strike still pushed forward. The strong struggled with the 
strong ; some failed, others triumphed ; the cowards fell back, 
the brave pressed on ; and sad was his fate who fell in the 
midst, for he had little chance of rising again ; and many in 
truth fell, who never rose at all, being crushed under the 
throng. 

" And now the Normans pressed on so far, that at last they 
had reached the standard. There Harold had remained, de- 
fending himself to the utmost ; but he was sorely wounded in 
his eye by the arrow, and suffered grievous pain from the blow. 
An armed man came in the throng of the battle, and struck 
him on the ventaille of his helmet, and beat him to the ground ; 
and as he sought to recover himself, a knight beat him down 
again, striking him on the thick of his thigh, down to the bone. 

" Gurth saw the English falling around, and that there was 
no remedy. He saw his race hastening to ruin, and despaired 
of any aid ; he would have fled, but could not, for the throng 
continually increased. And the duke pushed on till he reached 
him, and struck him with great force. Whether he died of 
that blow I know not, but it was said that he fell under it, and 
rose no more. 

" The standard was beaten down, the golden standard was 
taken, and Harold and the best of his friends were slain ; but 
there was so much eagerness, and throng of so many around, 
seeking to kill him, that I know not who it was that slew him. 

" The English were in great trouble at having lost their king, 
and at the duke's having conquered and beat down the stand- 
ard ; but they still fought on, and defended themselves long, 
and in fact till the day drew to a close. Then it clearly ap- 
peared to all that the standard was lost, and the news had 
spread throughout the army that Harold for certain was dead ; 
and all saw that there was no longer any hope, so they left the 
field, and those fled who could. 

" William fought well ; many an assault did he lead, many a 
blow did he give, and many receive, and many fell dead under 
his hand. Two horses were killed under him, and he took a 
third at time of need, so that he fell not to the ground ; and he 
lost not a drop of blood. But whatever any one did, and who- 
ever lived or died, this is certain, that William conquered, and 
that many of the English fled from the field, and many died on 
the spot. Then he returned thanks to God, and in his pride 



202 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

ordered his standard to be brought and set up on high where 
the English standard had stood ; and that was the signal of his 
having conquered and beaten down the foe. And he ordered 
his tent to be raised on the spot among the dead, and had his 
meat brought thither, and his supper prepared there. 

" Then he took off his armor ; and the barons and knights, 
pages and squires, came when he had unstrung his shield ; and 
they took the helmet from his head, and the hauberk from his 
back, and saw the heavy blows upon his shield, and how his 
helmet was dinted in. And all greatly wondered, and said, 
' Such a baron never bestrode war-horse, or dealt such blows, or 
did such feats of arms ; neither has there been on earth such a 
a knight since Rollant and Olivier.' 

" Thus they lauded and extolled him greatly, and rejoiced in 
what they saw ; but grieving also for their friends who were 
slain in the battle. And the duke stood meanwhile among 
them of noble stature and mien ; and rendered thanks to the 
King of Grlory, through whom he had the victory ; and thanked 
the knights around him, mourning also frequently for the dead. 
And he ate and drank among the dead, and made his bed that 
night upon the field. 

" The morrow was Sunday ; and those who had slept upon 
the field of battle, keeping watch around, and suffering great 
fatigue, bestirred themselves at break of day, and sought out and 
buried such of the bodies of their dead friends as they might 
find. The noble ladies of the land also came, some to seek 
their husbands, and others their fathers, sons, or brothers. 
They bore the bodies to their villages, and interred them at the 
churches ; and the clerks and priests of the country were ready, 
and at the request of their friends took the bodies that were 
found and prepared graves and laid them therein. 

" King Harold was carried and buried at Varham ; but I 
know not who it was that bore him thither, neither do I know 
who buried him. Many remained on the field, and many had 
fled in the night." 

Such is a Norman account of the battle of Hastings,* which 
does full justice to the valor of the Saxons, as well as to the 

* In the preceding pages I have woven together the " purpureos pannos " 
of the old chronicler. In so doing, I have largely availed myself of Mr. Edgar 
Taylor's version of that part of the " Roman de Rou " which describes the 
conquest. By giving engravings from the Bayeux Tapestry, and by his 
excellent notes, Mr. Taylor has added much to the value and interest of his 
volume. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 203 

skill and bravery of the victors. It is indeed evident that the 
loss of the battle to the English was owing to the wound which 
Harold received in the afternoon, and which must have incapaci- 
tated him from effective command. AVhen we remember that 
he had himself just won the battle of Stamford Bridge over 
Harald Hardrada by the manoeuvre of a feigned flight, it is 
impossible to suppose that he could be deceived by the same 
stratagem on the part of the Normans at Hastings. But his 
men, when deprived of his control, would very naturally be led 
by their inconsiderate ardor into the pursuit that proved so fatal 
to them. All the narratives of the battle, however much they 
may vary as to the precise time and manner of Harold's fall, 
eulogize the generalship and the personal prowess which he dis- 
played, until the fatal arrow struck him. The skill with which he 
had posted his army was proved, both by the slaughter which it 
cost the Normans to force the position, and also by the desper- 
ate rally which some of the Saxons made, after the battle, in the 
forest in the rear, in which they cut off a large number of the 
pursuing Normans. This circumstance is particularly men- 
tioned by William of Poitiers, the Conqueror's own chaplain. 
Indeed, if Harold, or either of his brothers, had survived, the 
remains of the English army might have formed again in the 
wood, and could at least have effected an orderly retreat, and 
prolonged the war. But both Gurth and Leofwine, and all the 
bravest thanes of Southern England, lay dead on Senlac, around 
their fallen king and the fallen standard of their country. The 
exact number of the slain on the Saxon side is unknown ; but 
we read that on the side of the victors, out of sixty thousand 
men who had been engaged, no less than a fourth perished ; so 
well had the English bill-men " plied the ghastly blow," and so 
sternly had the Saxon battle-axe cloven Norman casque and 
mail.* The old historian Daniel justly as well as forcibly re- 
marks, f " Thus was tried, by the great assize of God's judgment 
in battle, the right of power between the English and Norman 
nations ; a battle the most memorable of all others, and, how- 
ever miserably lost, yet most nobly fought on the part of 
England." 

Many a pathetic legend was told in after-years respecting the 
discovery and the burial of the corpse of our last Saxon king. 

* The Conqueror's chaplain calls the Saxon battle-axes "sasvissimas se- 
cures." 

f As cited in the " Pictorial History." 



204 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

The main circumstances, though they seem to vary, are perhaps 
reconcilable.* Two of the monks of Waltham Abbey, which 
Harold had founded a little time before his election to the 
throne, had accompanied him to the battle. On the morning 
after the slaughter they begged and gained permission of the 
Conqueror to search for the body of their benefactor. The 
Norman soldiery and camp-followers had stripped and gashed 
the slain; and the two monks vainly strove to recognize from 
among the mutilated and gory heaps around them the features 
of their former king. They sent for Harold's mistress, Edith, 
surnamed " the Fair " and the " Swan-necked," to aid them. 
The eye of love proved keener than the eye of gratitude, and 
the Saxon lady, even in that Aceldama, knew her Harold. 

The king's mother now sought the victorious Norman, and 
begged the dead body of her son. But William at first an- 
swered in his wrath, and in the hardness of his heart, that a 
man who had been false to his word and his religion should 
have no other sepulchre than the sand of the shore. He added, 
with a sneer, " Harold mounted guard on the coast while he was 
alive ; he may continue his guard now he is dead." The taunt 
was an unintentional eulogy ; and a grave washed by the spray 
of the Sussex waves would have been the noblest burial-place 
for the martyr of Saxon freedom. But Harold's mother was 
urgent in her lamentations and her prayers ; the Conqueror re- 
lented ; like Achilles, he gave up the dead body of his fallen 
foe to a parent's supplications ; and the remains of King Harold 
were deposited with regal honors in Waltham Abbey. 

On Christmas Day of the same year, William the Conqueror 
was crowned at London king of England. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 
a.d. 1066, AND JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY AT ORLEANS, 1429. 

a.d. 1066 to 1087. Reign of William the Conqueror. Fre- 
quent risings of the English against him, which are quelled 
with merciless rigor. 

1096. The first Crusade. 

1112. Commencement of the disputes about investitures be- 
tween the emperors and the popes. 

* See them collected in Lingai'd, vol. i., p. 452 et aeq. ; Thierry, vol. i., p. 
299; Sharon Turner, vol. i., p. 82; and "Histbire de Normandie" par 
Lieguet, p. 242. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 205 

1140. Foundation of the city of Liibeck, whence originated 
the Hanseatic League. Commencement of the feuds in Italy 
between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. 

1146. The second Crusade. 

1154. Henry II. becomes king of England. Under him 
Thomas a Becket is made Archbishop of Canterbury : the first 
instance of any man of the Saxon race being raised to high 
office in Church or State since the Conquest. 

1170. Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, lands with an English 
army in Ireland. 

1189. Richard Coeur de Lion becomes king of England. He 
and King Philip Augustus of France join in the third Crusade. 

1199 to 1204. On the death of King Richard, his brother 
John claims and makes himself master of England and Nor- 
mandy and the other large Continental possessions of the early 
Plantagenet princes. Philip Augustus asserts the cause of 
Prince Arthur, John's nephew, against him. Arthur is mur- 
dered, but the French king continues the war against John, and 
conquers from him Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, 
and Poitiers. 

1215. The barons, the freeholders, the citizens, and the yeo- 
men of England rise against the tyranny of John and his 
foreign favorites. They compel him to sign Magna Charta. 
This is the commencement of our nationality ; for our history 
from this time forth is the history of a national life, then com- 
plete, and still in being. All English history before this period 
is a mere history of elements, of their collisions, and of the 
processes of their fusion. For upward of a century after the 
Conquest, Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon had kept aloof from 
each other: the one in haughty scorn, the other in sullen ab- 
horrence. They were two peoples, though living in the same 
land. It is not until the thirteenth century, the period of the 
reigns of John and his son and grandson, that we can perceive 
the existence of any feeling of common patriotism among them. 
But in studying the history of these reigns, we read of the old 
dissensions no longer. The Saxon no more appears in civil 
war against the Norman ; the Norman no longer scorns the 
language of the Saxon, or refuses to bear together with him 
the name of Englishman. No part of the community think 
themselves foreigners to another part. They feel that they are 
all one people, and they have learned to unite their efforts for 
the common purpose of protecting the rights and promoting 
the welfare of all. The fortunate loss of the Duchy of Nor- 



206 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

mandy in John's reign greatly promoted these new feelings. 
Thenceforth our barons' only homes were in England. One lan- 
guage had, in the reign of Henry III., become the language of the 
land ; and that, also, had then assumed the form in which we 
still possess it. One law, in the eye of which all freemen are 
equal without distinction of race, was modelled, and steadily 
enforced, and still continues to form the groundwork of our 
judicial system.* 

12*73. Rudolph of Hapsburg chosen Emperor of Germany. 

1283. Edward I. conquers Wales. 

1346. Edward III. invades France, and gains the battle of 
Cressy. 

1356. Battle of Poitiers. 

1360. Treaty of Bretigny between England and France. By 
it Edward III. renounces his pretensions to the French crown. 
The treaty is ill kept, and indecisive hostilities continue between 
the forces of the two countries. 

1414. Henry V. of England claims the crown of France, and 
resolves to invade and conquer that kingdom. At this time 
France was in the most deplorable state of weakness and suffer- 
ing, from the factions that raged among her nobility, and from 
the cruel oppressions which the rival nobles practised on the 
mass of the community. " The people were exhausted by taxes, 
cival wars, and military executions ; and they had fallen into 
that worst of all states of mind, when the independence of one's 
country is thought no longer a paramount and sacred object. 
1 What can the English do to us worse than the things we suffer 
at the hands of our own princes?' was a common exclamation 
among the poor people of France."f 

1415. Henry invades France, takes Harfleur, and wins the 
great battle of Agineouri. 

1417 to 1419. Henry conquers Normandy. The French dau- 
phin assassinates the Duke of Burgundy, the most powerful of 
the French nobles, at Montereau. The successor of the mur- 
dered duke becomes the active ally of the English. 

1420. The Treaty of Troves is concluded between Henry V. 
of England and Charles VI. of France, and Philip, Duke of Bur- 
gundy. By this treaty it was stipulated that Henry should mar- 
ry the Princess Catherine of France ; that King Charles, during 
his lifetime, should keep the title and dignity of King of France, 
but that Henry should succeed him, and should at once be in- 

* Oeasy's " Text-book of the Constitution," p. 4. 
f "Pictorial Hist, of England," vol. i., p. 28. 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 207 

trusted with the administration of the government, and that the 
French crown should descend to Henry's heirs ; that France and 
England should forever be united under one king, but should 
still retain their several usages, customs, and privileges ; that all 
the princes, peers, vassals, and communities of France should 
swear allegiance to Henry as their future king, and should pay 
him present obedience as regent ; that Henry should unite his 
arms to those of King Charles and the Duke of Burgundy, in 
order to subdue the adherents of Charles, the pretended dau- 
phin ; and that these three princes should make no truce 
or peace with the dauphin but by the common consent of all 
three. 

1421. Henry V. gains several victories over the French, who 
refuse to acknowledge the treaty of Troyes. His son, after- 
wards Henry VI., is born. 

1422. Henry V. and Charles VI. of France die. Henry VI. 
is proclaimed at Paris, King of England and France. The fol- 
lowers of the French dauphin proclaim him Charles VII., King 
of France. The Duke of Bedford, the English regent in France, 
defeats the army of the dauphin at Crevant. 

1424. The Duke of Bedford gains the great victory of Ver- 
neuil, over the French partisans of the dauphin and their Scotch 
auxiliaries. . 

1428. The English begin the siege of Orleans. 



208 JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY 



CHAPTER IX. 

JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY OVER THE ENGLISH AT ORLEANS, A.D. 1429. 

u The eyes of all Europe were turned towards this scene; where, it was 
reasonably supposed, the French were to make their last stand for maintain- 
ing the independence of their monarchy and the rights of their sovereign." — 
Hume. 

When, after their victory at Salamis, the generals of the vari- 
ous Greek states voted the prizes for distinguished individual 
merit, each assigned the first place of excellence to himself, but 
they all concurred in giving their second votes to Themistocles.* 
This was looked on as a decisive proof that Themistocles ought 
to be ranked first of all. If we were to endeavor, by a similar 
test, to ascertain which European nation has contributed the 
most to the progress of European civilization, we should find 
Italy, Germany, England, and Spain each claiming the first de- 
gree, but each also naming France as clearly next in merit. It 
is impossible to deny her paramount importance in history. 
Besides the formidable part that she has for nearly three cen- 
turies played, as the Bellona of the European commonwealth of 
states, her influence during all this period over the arts, the 
literature, the manners, and the feelings of mankind, has been 
such as to make the crisis of her earlier fortunes a point of 
world-wide interest; and it may be asserted without exaggera- 
tion that the future career of every nation was involved in the 
result of the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of 
France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her 
country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the 
triumphant English. 

Seldom has the extinction of a nation's independence appeared 
more inevitable than was the case in France, when the English 
invaders completed their lines round Orleans, four hundred and 
twenty-three years ago. A series of dreadful defeats had 

♦Plutarch, " Vit Them," H. 



AT ORLEANS. 209 

thinned the chivalry of France, and daunted the spirits of her 
soldiers. A foreign king had been proclaimed in her capital ; 
and foreign armies of the bravest veterans, and led by the ablest 
captains then known in the world, occupied the fairest portions 
of her territory. Worse to her even than the fierceness and the 
strength of her foes were the factions, the vices, and the crimes 
of her own children. Her native prince was a dissolute trifler, 
stained with the assassination of the most powerful noble of 
the land, whose son, in revenge, had leagued himself with the 
enemy. Many more of her nobility, many of her prelates, her 
magistrates, and rulers, had sworn fealty to the English king. 
The condition of the peasantry amid the general prevalence of 
anarchy and brigandage, which were added to the customary 
devastations of contending armies, was wretched beyond the 
power of language to describe. The sense of terror and suffer- 
ing seemed to have extended itself even to the brute creation. 

" In sooth, the estate of France was then most miserable. 
There appeared nothing but a horrible face, confusion, poverty, 
desolation, solitarinesse, and feare. The lean and bare labourers 
in the country did terrifie even theeves themselves, who had 
nothing left them to spoile but the carkasses of these poore mis- 
erable creatures, wandering up and down like ghosts drawne out 
of their graves. The least farmes and hamlets were fortified by 
these robbers, English, Bourguegnons, and French, every one 
striving to do his worst ; all men-of-war were well agreed to 
spoile the countryman and merchant. Even the cattell, accus- 
tomed to the larume bell, the signe of the enemy 's approach, would 
run home of themselves without any guide, by this accustomed 
misery T * 

In the autumn of 1428, the English, who were already mas- 
ters of all France north of the Loire, prepared their forces for 
the conquest of the southern provinces, which yet adhered to 
the cause of the dauphin. The city of Orleans, on the banks 
of that river, was looked upon as the last stronghold of the 
French national party. If the English could once obtain pos- 
session of it, their victorious progress through the residue of 
the kingdom seemed free from any serious obstacle. Accord- 
ingly, the Earl of Salisbury, one of the bravest and most ex- 
perienced of the English generals, who had been trained under 
Henry V., marched to the attack of the all-important city ; and, 
after reducing several places of inferior consequence in the 

* De Serres, quoted in the notes to Southey's "Joan of Arc." 



210 JOAN OF ARCS VICTORY 

neighborhood, appeared with his army before its walls on the 
12th of October, 1428. 

The city of Orleans itself was on the north side of the Loire, 
but its suburbs extended far on the southern side, and a strong 
bridge connected them with the town. A fortification, which in 
modern military phrase would be termed a tete-du-pont, defend- 
ed the bridge-head on the southern side, and two towers, called 
the Tourelles, were built on the bridge itself, where it rested on 
an island at a little distance from the tete-du-pont. Indeed, the 
solid masonry of the bridge terminated at the Tourelles, and 
the communication thence with the tete-du-pont on the southern 
shore was by means of a drawbridge. The Tourelles and the 
tete-du-pont formed together a strong fortified post, capable of 
containing a garrison of considerable strength : and so long as 
this was in possession of the Orleannais, they could communi- 
cate freely with the southern provinces, the inhabitants of which, 
like the Orleannais themselves, supported the cause of their 
dauphin against the foreigners. Lord Salisbury rightly judged 
the capture of the Tourelles to be the most material step tow- 
ards the reduction of the city itself. Accordingly he directed 
his principal operations against this post, and, after some very 
severe repulses, he carried the Tourelles by storm, on the 23d of 
October. The French, however, broke down the part of the 
bridge which was nearest to the north bank, and thus rendered 
a direct assault from the Tourelles upon the city impossible. 
But the possession of this post enabled the English to distress 
the town greatly by a battery of cannon which they planted 
there, and which commanded some of the principal streets. 

It has been observed by Hume that this is the first siege in 
which any important use appears to have been made of artillery. 
And even at Orleans both besiegers and besieged seem to have 
employed their cannons more as instruments of destruction 
against their enemy's men, than as engines of demolition against 
their enemy's walls and works. The efficacy of cannon in 
breaching solid masonry was taught Europe by the Turks, a 
few years afterwards, at the memorable siege of Constantinople. 
In our French wars, as in the wars of the classic nations, famine 
was looked on as the surest weapon to compel the submission of 
a well-walled town ; and the great object of the besiegers was 
to effect a complete circumvallation. The great ambit of the 
walls of Orleans, and the facilities which the river gave for ob- 
taining succor and supplies, rendered the capture of the place 
by this process a matter of great difficulty. Nevertheless, Lord 



AT ORLEANS. 



211 



Salisbury, and Lord Suffolk, who succeeded him in command of 
the English after his death by a cannon-ball, carried on the 
necessary works with great skill and resolution. Six strongly 
fortified posts, called bastilles, were formed at certain intervals 
round the town ; and the purpose of the English engineers was 
to draw strong lines between them. During the winter little 
progress was made with the entrenchments, but when the spring 
of 1429 came, the English resumed their works with activity; 
the communications between the city and the country became 
more difficult, and the approach of want began already to be 
felt in Orleans. 




ORLEANS.* 



The besieging force also fared hardly for stores and provi- 
sions, until relieved by the effects of a brilliant victory which Sir 
John Fastolfe, one of the best English generals, gained at Rou- 
vrai, near Orleans, a few days after Ash Wednesday, 1429. 
With only sixteen hundred fighting men, Sir John completely 
defeated an army of French and Scots, four thousand strong, 
which had been collected for the purpose of aiding the Orlean- 
nais and harassing the besiegers. After this encounter, which 
seemed decisively to confirm the superiority of the English in 
battle over their adversaries, Fastolfe escorted large supplies of 
stores and food to Suffolk's camp, and the spirits of the English 
rose to the highest pitch at the prospect of the speedy capture 

* This is taken from an old plan of Orleans when besieged by the Duke of 
Guise in the Huguenot wars. The state of the Tourelles and bridge is not 
identical with what it was in Joan of Arc's time, but it may give a general 
idea cf it. 



212 JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY 

of the city before them, and the consequent subjection of all 
France beneath their arms. 

The Orleannais now in their distress offered to surrender the 
city into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, who, though the 
ally of the English, was yet one of their native princes. The 
Regent Bedford refused these terms, and the speedy submission 
of the city to the English seemed inevitable. The Dauphin 
Charles, who was now at Chinon with his remnant of a court, 
despaired of maintaining any longer the struggle for his crown ; 
and was only prevented from abandoning the country by the 
more masculine spirits of his mistress and his queen. Yet 
neither they, nor the boldest of Charles's captains, could have 
shown him where to find resources for prolonging the war ; and 
least of all could any human skill have predicted the quarter 
whence rescue was to come to Orleans and to France. 

In the village of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine, there 
was a poor peasant of the name of Jacques d'Arc, respected in 
"his station of life, and who had reared a family in virtuous 
habits and in the practice of the strictest devotion. His eldest 
daughter was named by her parents Jeannette, but she was 
called Jeanne by the French, which was Latinized into Johanna, 
and Anglicized into Joan.* 

At the time when Joan first attracted attention she was about 
eighteen years of age. She was naturally of a susceptible dis- 
position, which diligent attention to the legends of saints and 
tales of fairies, aided by the dreamy loneliness of her life while 
tending her father's flocks,f had made peculiarly prone to en- 

* " Respondit quod in partibus suis vocabatur Johanneta, et postquam 
venit in Franciam vocata est Johanna." — Proces de Jeanne d'Arc, vol. i., p. 
46. 

f Southey, in one of the speeches which he puts in the mouth of his Joan 
of Arc, has made her beautifully describe the effect on her mind of the 
scenery in which she dwelt : 

" Here in solitude and peace 
My soul was nurst, amid the loveliest scenes 
Of unpolluted nature. Sweet it was, 
As the white mists of morning rolled away, 
To see the mountain's wooded heights appear 
Dark in the early dawn, and mark its slope 
With gorse-flowers glowing, as the rising sun 
On the golden ripeness poured a deepening light. 
Pleasant at noon beside the vocal brook 
To lay me down, and watch the floating clouds, 
And shape to Fancy's wild similitudes 



AT ORLEANS. 213 

thusiastic fervor. At the same time she was eminent for piety 
and purity of soul, and for her compassionate gentleness to the 
sick and the distressed. 

The district where she dwelt had escaped comparatively free 
from the ravages of war, but the approach of roving bands of 
Burgundian or English troops frequently spread terror through 
Domremy. Once the village had been plundered by some of 
these marauders, and Joan and her family had been driven from 
their home, and forced to seek refuge for a time at Neufchateau. 
The peasantry in Domremy were principally attached to the 
House of Orleans and the dauphin ; and all the miseries which 
France endured were there imputed to the Burgundian faction 
and their allies, the English, who were seeking to enslave un- 
happy France. 

Thus from infancy to girlhood Joan had heard continually of 
the woes of the war, and she had herself witnessed some of the 
wretchedness that it caused. A feeling of intense patriotism 
grew in her with her growth. The deliverance of France from 
the English was the subject of her reveries by day and her 
dreams by night. Blended with these aspirations were recol- 
lections of the miraculous interpositions of Heaven in favor of 
the oppressed, which she had learned from the legends of her 
church. Her faith was undoubting ; her prayers were fervent. 
" She feared no danger, for she felt no sin ;" and at length she 
believed herself to have received the supernatural inspiration 
which she sought. 

According to her own narrative, delivered by her to her mer- 
ciless inquisitors in the time of her captivity and approaching 
death, she was about thirteen years old when her revelations 
commenced. Her own words describe them best : * "At the 
age of thirteen, a voice from God came near to her to help her 
in ruling herself, and that voice came to her about the hour of 



Their ever- varying forms ; and oh, how sweet, 
To drive my flock at evening to the fold, 
And hasten to our little hut, and hear 
The voice of kindness bid me welcome home !" 

The only foundation for the story told by the Burgundian partisan Mon- 
strelet, and adopted by Hume, of Joan having been brought up as servant at 
an inn, is the circumstance of her having been once, with the rest of her 
family, obliged to take refuge in an auberge in Neufchateau for fifteen days, 
when a party of Burgundian cavalry made an incursion into Domremy. (See 
the Quarterly Review, No. 138.) 

* " Proces de Jeanne d'Arc," vol. i., p. 62. 



214 JOAN OF ARCS VICTORY 

noon, in summer time, while she was in her father's garden. 
And she had fasted the day before. And she heard the 
voice on her right, in the direction of the church ; and when she 
heard the voice she also saw a bright light. Afterwards, St. 
Michael and St. Margaret and St. Catherine appeared to her. 
They were always in a halo of glory ; she could see that their 
heads were crowned with jewels ; and she heard their voices, 
which were sweet and mild. She did not distinguish their arms 
or limbs. She heard them more frequently than she saw them ; 
and the usual time when she heard them was when the church 
bells were sounding for prayer. And if she was in the woods 
when she heard them, she could plainly distinguish their voices 
drawing near to her. When she thought that she discerned 
the heavenly voices, she knelt down, and bowed herself to the 
ground. Their presence gladdened her even to tears ; and after 
they departed she wept because they had not taken her with 
them back to Paradise. They always spoke soothingly to her. 
They told her that France would be saved, and that she was to 
save it." Such were the visions and the voices that moved the 
spirit of the girl of thirteen ; and as she grew older they became 
more frequent and more clear. At last the tidings of the siege 
of Orleans reached Domremy. Joan heard her parents and 
neighbors talk of the sufferings of its population, of the ruin 
which its capture would bring on their lawful sovereign, and of 
the distress of the dauphin and his court. Joan's heart was 
sorely troubled at the thought of the fate of Orleans ; and her 
voices now ordered her to leave her home ; and warned her that 
she was the instrument chosen by Heaven for driving away the 
English from that city, and for taking the dauphin to be 
anointed king at Rheims. At length she informed her parents 
of her divine mission, and told them that she must go to the 
Sire de Baudricourt, who commanded at Vaucouleurs, and who 
was the appointed person to bring her into the presence of the 
king, whom she was to save. Neither the anger nor the grief 
of her parents, who said that they would rather see her drowned 
than exposed to the contamination of the camp, could move her 
from her purpose. One of her uncles consented to take her to 
Vaucouleurs, where De Baudricourt at first thought her mad, 
and derided her ; but by degrees was led to believe, if not in her 
inspiration, at least in her enthusiasm and in its possible utility 
to the dauphin's cause. 

The inhabitants of Vaucouleurs were completely won over to 
her side, by the piety and devoutness which she displayed, and 



AT ORLEANS. 215 

by her firm assurance in the truth of her mission. She told 
them that it was God's will that she should go to the king, and 
that no one but her could save the kingdom of France. She 
said that she herself would rather remain with her poor mother 
and spin ; but the Lord had ordered her forth. The fame of 
" The Maid," as she was termed, the renown of her holiness 
and of her mission, spread far and wide. Baudricourt sent her 
with an escort to Chinon, where the Dauphin Charles was dally- 
ing away his time. Her voices had bidden her assume the 
arms and the apparel of a knight ; and the wealthiest inhabit- 
ants of Vaucouleurs had vied with each other in equipping her 
with war-horse, armor, and sword. On reaching Chinon, she 
was, after some delay, admitted into the presence of the dau- 
phin. Charles designedly dressed himself far less richly than 
many of his courtiers were apparelled, and mingled with them, 
when Joan was introduced, in order to see if the Holy Maid 
would address her exhortations to the wrong person. But she 
instantly singled him out, and, kneeling before him, said, " Most 
noble dauphin, the King of Heaven announces to you by me 
that you shall be anointed and crowned king in the city of 
Rheims, and that you shall be his vicegerent in France." His 
features may probably have been seen by her previously in por- 
traits, or have been described to her by others ; but she herself 
believed that her voices inspired her when she addressed the 
king ;* and the report soon spread abroad that the Holy Maid 
had found the king by a miracle ; and this, with many other 
similar rumors, augmented the renown and influence that she 
now rapidly acquired. 

The state of public feeling in France was now favorable to 
an enthusiastic belief in divine interposition in favor of the 
party that had hitherto been unsuccessful and oppressed. The 
humiliations which had befallen the French royal family and 
nobility were looked on as the just judgments of God upon 
them for their vice and impiety. The misfortunes that had 
come upon France as a nation were believed to have been 
drawn down by national sins. The English, who had been the 
instruments of Heaven's wrath against France, seemed now by 
their pride and cruelty to be fitting objects of it themselves. 
France in that age was a profoundly religious country. There 
was ignorance, there was superstition, there was bigotry ; but 
there was faith — a faith that itself worked true miracles, even 

* " Proces de Jeanne d'Arc," vol. i., p. 56. 



216 JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY 

while it believed in unreal ones. At this time, also, one of 
those devotional movements began among the clergy in France 
which from time to time occur in national churches without it 
being possible for the historian to assign any adequate human 
cause for their immediate date or extension. Numberless friars 
and priests traversed the rural districts and towns of France, 
preaching to the people that they must seek from Heaven a de- 
liverance from the pillages of the soldiery and the insolence of 
the foreign oppressors.* The idea of a Providence that works 
only by general laws was wholly alien to the feelings of the 
age. Every political event, as well as every natural phenom- 
enon, was believed to be the immediate result of a special man- 
date of God. This led to the belief that his holy angels and 
saints were constantly employed in executing his commands 
and mingling in the affairs of men. " The church encouraged 
these feelings ; and at the same time sanctioned the concurrent 
popular belief that hosts of evil spirits were also ever actively 
interposing in the current of earthly events, with whom sorcer- 
ers and wizards could league themselves, and thereby obtain the 
exercise of supernatural power. 

Thus all things favored the influence which Joan obtained 
both over friends and foes. The French nation, as well as the 
English and the Burgundians, readily admitted that superhu- 
man beings inspired her : the only question was, whether these 
beings were good or evil angels ; whether she brought with her 
" airs from heaven, or blasts from hell." This question seemed 
to her countrymen to be decisively settled in her favor by the 
austere sanctity of her life, by the holiness of her conversation, 
but, still more, by her exemplary attention to all the services 
and rites of the church. The dauphin at first feared the in- 
jury that might be done to his cause if he had laid himself 
open to the charge of having leagued himself with a sorceress. 
Every imaginable test, therefore, was resorted to in order to set 
Joan's orthodoxy and purity beyond suspicion. At last Charles 
and his advisers felt safe in accepting her services as those of a 
true and virtuous daughter of the Holy Church. 

It is indeed probable that Charles himself, and some of his 
counsellors, may have suspected Joan of being a mere enthusi- 
ast ; and it is certain that Dunois, and others of the best gen- 
erals, took considerable latitude in obeying or deviating from 
the military orders that she gave. But over the mass of the 

♦See Sismondi, vol. xiii., p. 114 ; Michelet, vol. v., livre x. 



AT ORLEANS. 217 

people and the soldiery, her influence was unbounded. While 
Charles and his doctors of theology, and court ladies, had been 
deliberating as to recognizing or dismissing the Maid, a consid- 
erable period had passed away, during which a small army, the 
last gleanings, as it seemed, of the English sword, had been as- 
sembled at Blois, under Dunois, La Hire, Xaintrailles, and other 
chiefs, who to their natural valor were now beginning to unite 
the wisdom that is taught by misfortune. It was resolved to 
send Joan with this force and a convoy of provisions to Orleans. 
The distress of that city had now become urgent. But the 
communication with the open country was not entirely cut off ; 
the Orleannais had heard of the Holy Maid whom Providence 
had raised up for their deliverance, and their messengers ur- 
gently implored the dauphin to send her to them without delay. 

Joan appeared at the camp at Blois, clad in a new suit of 
brilliant white armor, mounted on a stately black war-horse, 
and with a lance in her right hand, which she had learned to 
wield with skill and grace.* Her head was unhelmeted ; so 
that all could behold her fair and expressive features, her deep- 
set and earnest eyes, and her long black hair, which was parted 
across her forehead, and bound by a ribbon behind her back. 
She wore at her side a small battle-axe, and the consecrated 
sword, marked on the blade with five crosses, which had at her 
bidding been taken for her from the shrine of St. Catherine at 
Fierbois. A page carried her banner, which she had caused to 
be made and embroidered as her voices enjoined. It was 
white satin, j- strewn with fleur-de-lis ; and on it were the words 
" Jhesus Maria," and the representation of the Saviour in his 
glory. Joan afterwards generally bore her banner herself in 
battle ; she said that though she loved her sword much, she 
loved her banner forty times as much ; and she loved to carry 
it because it could not kill any one. 

Thus accoutred, she came to lead the troops of France, who 
looked with soldierly admiration on her well-proportioned and 
upright figure, the skill with which she managed her war-horse, 
and the easy grace with which she handled her weapons. Her 
military education had been short, but she had availed herself 
of it well. She had also the good sense to interfere little with 

* See the description of her by Gui de Laval, quoted in the note to 
Michelet, p. 69 ; and see the account of the banner at Orleans, which is be- 
lieved to bear an authentic portrait of the Maid, in Murray's " Handbook for 
France," p. 175. 

f "Proces de Jeanne d'Arc," vol. i., p. 238. 



218 JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY 

the manoeuvres of the troops, leaving those things to Dunois, 
and others whom she had the discernment to recognize as the 
best officers in the camp. Her tactics in action were simple 
enough. As she herself described it, " I used to say to them, 
' Go boldly in among the English,' and then I used to go boldly 
in myself."* Such, as she told her inquisitors, was the only 
spell she used ; and it was one of power. But while interfering 
little with the military discipline of the troops, in all matters of 
moral discipline she was inflexibly strict. All the abandoned 
followers of the camp were driven away. She compelled both 
generals and soldiers to attend regularly at confessional. Her 
chaplain and other priests marched with the army under her 
orders ; and at every halt an altar was set up and the sacra- 
ment administered. No oath or foul language passed without 
punishment or censure. Even the roughest and most hardened 
veterans obeyed her. They put off for a time the bestial coarse- 
ness which had grown on them during a life of bloodshed and 
rapine ; they felt that they must go forth in a new spirit to a 
new career, and acknowledged the beauty of the holiness in 
which the heaven-sent Maid was leading them to certain victory. 

Joan marched from Blois on the 25th of April with a convoy 
of provisions for Orleans, accompanied by Dunois, La Hire, and 
the other chief captains of the French ; and on the evening of 
the 28th they approached the town. In the words of the old 
chronicler Hall :f "The Englishmen, perceiving that they with- 
in could not long continue for faute of vitaile and pouder, kepte 
not their watche so diligently as thei were accustomed, nor 
scoured now the countrey environed as thei before had or- 
dained. Whiche negligence the citizens shut in perceiving, 
sente worde thereof to the French captaines, which with Pucelle 
in the dedde tyme of the nighte, and in a greate rayne and thun- 
dere, with all their vitaile and artillery entered into the citie." 

When it was day, the Maid rode in solemn procession through 
the city, clad in complete armor, and mounted on a white horse. 
Dunois was by her side, and all the bravest knights of her army 
and of the garrison followed in her train. The whole popula- 
tion thronged around her ; and men, women, and children strove 
to touch her garments or her banner or her charger. They 
poured forth blessings on her, whom they already considered 
their deliverer. In the words used by two of them afterwards 
before the tribunal which reversed the sentence, but could not re- 

* "Proces de Jeanne d'Arc," vol. i., p. 238. f Hall, f. 127. 



AT ORLEANS. 219 

store the life, of the Virgin-martyr of France, "the people of 
Orleans, when they first saw her in their city, thought that it 
was an angel from heaven that had come down to save them." 
Joan spoke gently in reply to their acclamations and addresses. 
She told them to fear God, and trust in him for safety from 
the fury of their enemies. She first went to the principal 
church, where Te Deum was chanted ; and then she took up 
her abode in the house of Jacques Bourgier. one of the princi- 
pal citizens, and whose wife was a matron of good repute. 
She refused to attend a splendid banquet which had been pro- 
vided for her, and passed nearly all her time in prayer. 

When it was known by the English that the Maid was in Or- 
leans, their minds were not less occupied about her than were 
the minds of those in the city ; but it was in a very different 
spirit. The English believed in her supernatural mission as 
firmly as the French did ; but they thought her a sorceress who 
had come to overthrow them by her enchantments. An old 
prophecy, which told that a damsel from Lorraine was to save 
France, had long been current ; and it was known and applied 
to Joan by foreigners as well as by the natives. For months 
the English had heard of the coming Maid ; and the tales of 
miracles which she was said to have wrought had been listened 
to by the rough yeomen of the English camp with anxious curi- 
osity and secret awe. She had sent a herald to the English 
generals before she marched for Orleans ; and he had sum- 
moned the English generals in the name of the Most High to 
give up to the Maid who was sent by Heaven the keys of the 
French cities which they had wrongfully taken ; and he also 
solemnly adjured the English troops, whether archers, or men 
of the companies of war, or gentlemen, or others, who were be- 
fore the city of Orleans, to depart thence to their homes, under 
peril of being visited by the judgment of God. On her arrival 
in Orleans, Joan sent another similar message ; but the English 
scoffed at her from their towers, and threatened to burn her 
heralds. She determined before she shed the blood of the be- 
siegers, to repeat the warning with her own voice ; and accord- 
ingly she mounted one of the boulevards of the town, which was 
within hearing of the Tourelles; and thence she spoke to the 
English, and bade them depart, otherwise they would meet 
with shame and woe. Sir William Gladsdale (whom the French 
call Glacidas) commanded the English post at the Tourelles, 
and he and another English officer replied by bidding her go 
home and keep her cows, and by ribald jests, that brought 



220 JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY 

tears of shame and indignation into her eyes. But though the 
English leaders vaunted aloud, the effect produced on their 
army by Joan's presence in Orleans was proved four days after 
her arrival ; when, on the approach of reinforcements and stores 
to the town, Joan and La Hire marched out to meet them, and 
escorted the long train of provision wagons safely into Or- 
leans, between the bastilles of the English, who cowered be- 
hind their walls, instead of charging fiercely and fearlessly, as 
had been their wont, on any French band that dared to show 
itself within reach. 

Thus far she had prevailed without striking a blow ; but the 
time was now come to test her courage amid the horrors of 
actual slaughter. On the afternoon of the day on which she 
had escorted the reinforcements into the city, while she was 
resting fatigued at home, Dunois had seized an advantageous 
opportunity of attacking the English bastille of St. Loup ; and 
a fierce assault of the Orleannais had been made on it, which 
the English garrison of the fort stubbornly resisted. Joan was 
roused by a sound which she believed to be that of her heaven- 
ly voices ; she called for her arms and horse, and, quickly equip- 
ping herself, she mounted to ride off to where the fight was rag- 
ing. In her haste she had forgotten her banner; she rode back, 
and, without dismounting, had it given to her from the window, 
and then she galloped to the gate, whence the sally had been 
made. On her way she met some of the wounded French who 
had been carried back from the fight. " Ha," she exclaimed, 
"I never can see French blood flow without my hair standing 
on end." She rode out of the gate, and met the tide of her 
countrymen, who had been repulsed from the English fort, and 
were flying back to Orleans in confusion. At the sight of the 
Holy Maid and her banner they rallied, and renewed the as- 
sault. Joan rode forward at their head, waving her banner and 
cheering them on. The English quailed at what they believed 
to be the charge of hell ; St. Loup was stormed, and its defend- 
ers put to the sword, except some few, whom Joan succeeded 
in saving. All her woman's gentleness returned when the com- 
bat was over. It was the first time that she had ever seen a 
battle-field. She wept at the sight of so many blood-stained 
and mangled corpses ; and her tears flowed doubly when she re- 
flected that they were the bodies of Christian men who had 
died without confession. 

The next day was Ascension-day, and it was passed by Joan 
in prayer. But on the following morrow it was resolved by the 



AT ORLEANS. 221 

chiefs of the garrison to attack the English forts on the south 
of the river. For this purpose they crossed the river in boats, 
and after some severe righting, in which the Maid was wounded 
in the heel, both the English bastilles of the Augustins and St. 
Jean de Blanc were captured. The Tourelles were now the 
only post which the besiegers held on the south of the river. 
But that post was formidably strong, and by its command of 
the bridge it was the key to the deliverance of Orleans. It was 
known that a fresh English army was approaching under Falstolfe 
to reinforce the besiegers, and should that army arrive while the 
Tourelles were yet in the possession of their comrades, there was 
great peril of all the advantages which the French had gained be- 
ing nullified, and of the siege being again actively carried on. 

It was resolved, therefore, by the French, to assail the Tou- 
relles at once, while the enthusiasm which the presence and the 
heroic valor of the Maid had created was at its height. But 
the enterprise was difficult. The rampart of the tete-du-pont, 
or landward bulwark, of the Tourelles was steep and high ; and 
Sir John Gladsdale occupied this all-important fort with five 
hundred archers and men-at-arms who were the very flower of 
the English army. 

Early in the morning of the 7th of May, some thousands of 
the best French troops in Orleans heard mass and attended the 
confessional by Joan's orders ; and then, crossing the river in 
boats, as on the preceding day, they assailed the bulwark of the 
Tourelles, " with light hearts and heavy hands." But Glads- 
dale's men, encouraged by their bold and skilful leader, made 
a resolute and able defence. The Maid planted her banner on 
the edge of the fosse, and then, springing down into the ditch, 
she placed the first ladder against the wall, and began to mount. 
An English archer sent an arrow at her, which pierced her 
corslet and wounded her severely between the neck and shoulder. 
She fell bleeding from the ladder; and the English were leap- 
ing down from the wall to capture her, but her followers bore 
her off. She was carried to the rear, and laid upon the grass ; 
her armor was taken off, and the anguish of her wound and the 
sight of her blood made her at first tremble and weep. But 
her confidence in her celestial mission soon returned ; her pa- 
tron saints seemed to stand before her and reassure her. She 
sat up and drew the arrow out with her own hands. Some of 
the soldiers who stood by wished to stanch the blood, by say- 
ing a charm over the wound; but she forbade them, saying 
that she did not wish to be cured by unhallowed means. She 



222 JOAN OF ARCS VICTORY 

had the wound dressed with a little oil, and then, bidding her 
confessor come to her, she betook herself to prayer. 

In the meanwhile, the English in the bulwark of the Tou- 
relles had repulsed the oft-renewed efforts of the French to scale 
the wall. Dunois, who commanded the assailants, was at last 
discouraged, and gave orders for a retreat to be sounded. Joan 
sent for him and the other generals, and implored them not to 
despair. " By my God," she said to them, " you shall soon en- 
ter in there. Do not doubt it. When you see my banner wave 
again up to the wall, to your arms again ! the fort is yours. 
For the present rest a little, and take some food and drink. 
They did so," says the old chronicler of the siege,* "for they 
obeyed her marvellously." The faintness caused by her wound 
had now passed off, and she headed the French in another rush 
against the bulwark. The English, who had thought her slain, 
were alarmed at her reappearance ; while the French pressed 
furiously and fanatically forward. A Biscayan soldier was car- 
rying Joan's banner. She had told the troops that directly the 
banner touched the wall they should enter. The Biscayan 
waved the banner forward from the edge of the fosse, and 
touched the wall with it ; and then all the French host swarmed 
madly up the ladders that now were raised in all directions 
against the English fort. At this crisis, the efforts of the Eng- 
lish garrison were distracted by an attack from another quarter. 
The French troops who had been left in Orleans had placed 
some planks over the broken part of the bridge, and advanced 
across them to the assault of the Tourelles on the northern 
side. Gladsdale resolved to withdraw his men from the land- 
ward bulwark, and concentrate his whole force in the Tou- 
relles themselves. He was passing for this purpose across the 
drawbridge that connected the Tourelles and the tete-du-pont, 
when Joan, who by this time had scaled the wall of the bul- 
wark, called out to him, " Surrender, surrender to the King of 
Heaven. Ah, Glacidas, you have foully wronged me with your 
words, but I have great pity on your soul and the souls of your 
men." The Englishman, disdainful of her summons, was strid- 
ing on across the drawbridge, when a cannon-shot from the 
town carried it away, and Gladsdale perished in the water 
that ran beneath. After his fall, the remnant of the English 
abandoned all further resistance. Three hundred of them had 
been killed in the battle, and two hundred were made prisoners. 

* " Journal du Siege d'Orleans," p. 87. 



AT ORLEANS. 223 

The broken arch was speedily repaired by the exulting Or- 
leannais ; and Joan made her triumphal re-entry into the city by 
the bridge that had so long been closed. Every church in Or- 
leans rang out its gratulating peal ; and throughout the night 
the sounds of rejoicing echoed, and the bonfires blazed up from 
the city. But in the lines and forts which the besiegers yet re- 
tained on the northern shore, there was anxious watching of the 
generals, and there was desponding gloom among the soldiery. 
Even Talbot now counselled retreat. On the following morning, 
the Orleannais, from their walls, saw the great forts called " Lon- 
don" and " St. Lawrence," in flames; and witnessed their in- 
vaders busy in destroying the stores and munitions which had 
been relied on for the destruction of Orleans. Slowly and sul- 
lenly the English army retired ; but not before it had drawn up 
in battle array opposite to the city, as if to challenge the garri- 
son to an encounter. The French troops were eager to go out 
and attack, but Joan forbade it. The day was Sunday. " In the 
name of God," she said, " let them depart, and let us return 
thanks to God." She led the soldiers and citizens forth from 
Orleans, but not for the shedding of blood. They passed in 
solemn procession round the city walls ; and then, while their 
retiring enemies were yet in sight, they knelt in thanksgiving to 
God for the deliverance which he had vouchsafed them. 

Within three months from the time of her first interview with 
the dauphin, Joan had fulfilled the first part of her promise, the 
raising of the siege of Orleans. Within three months more she 
fulfilled the second part also ; and she stood with her banner in 
her hand by the high altar at Rheims while he was anointed and 
crowned as King Charles VII. of France. In the interval she 
had taken Jargeau, Troyes, and other strong places ; and she 
had defeated an English army in a fair field at Patay. The en- 
thusiasm of her countrymen knew no bounds ; but the impor- 
tance of her services, and especially of her primary achievement 
at Orleans, may perhaps be best proved by the testimony of her 
enemies. There is extant a fragment of a letter from the Re- 
gent Bedford to his royal nephew, Henry VI., in which he be- 
wails the turn that the war had taken, and especially attributes 
it to the raising of the siege of Orleans by Joan. Bedford's own 
words, which are preserved in Rymer,* are as follows : 

" And alle thing there prospered for you til the tyme of the Siege 
of Orleans, taken in hand, God hioweth by what advis. 

* Vol. x., p. 403. 



224 JOAN OF ARCS VICTORY 

11 At the whicke tyme, after the adventure fallen to the persone 
of my cousin of Salisbury, whom God assoille, there f el le, by the 
hand of God as it seemeth, a great strook upon your peuple that 
ivas assembled titer e in grete nombre, caused in grete par tie, as y 
trowe, of lakke of sadde beleve, and of unlevefulle doubte, that thei 
hadde of a disciple and lyme of the Fecnde, called the Pucelle, that 
used fals enchantments and sor eerie. 

" The ivhiche strooJce and discomfiture not oonly lesseel in grete 
par tie the nombre of your peuple there, but as well withdrewe the 
courage of the remenant in merveillous wyse, and couraiged your 
adverse partie and ennemys to assemble them forthwith in grete 
nombreP 

When Charles had been anointed King of France, Joan be- 
lieved that her mission was accomplished. And in truth the 
deliverance of France from the English, though not completed 
for many years afterwards, was then insured. The ceremony of 
a royal coronation and anointment was not in those days regard- 
ed as a mere costly formality. It was believed to confer the 
sanction and the grace of Heaven upon the prince, who had pre- 
viously ruled with mere human authority. Thenceforth he was 
the Lord's Anointed. Moreover, one of the difficulties that had 
previously lain in the way of many Frenchmen when called on 
to support Charles VII. was now removed. He had been pub- 
licly stigmatized, even by his own parents, as no true son of the 
royal race of France. The queen-mother, the English, and the 
partisans of Burgundy called him the " Pretender to the title of 
Dauphin ;" but those who had been led to doubt his legitimacy 
were cured of their scepticism by the victories of the Holy Maid, 
and by the fulfilment of her pledges. They thought that Heaven 
had now declared itself in favor of Charles as the true heir of the 
crown of St. Louis ; and the tales about his being spurious were 
thenceforth regarded as mere English calumnies. With this 
strong tide of national feeling in his favor, with victorious gen- 
erals and soldiers round him, and a dispirited and divided enemy 
before him, he could not fail to conquer ; though his own im- 
prudence and misconduct, and the stubborn valor which some 
of the English still displayed, prolonged the war in France nearly 
to the time when the civil war of the Roses broke out in Eng- 
land, and insured for France peace and repose. 

Joan knelt before the new-crowned king in the cathedral of 
Rheims, and shed tears of joy. She said that she had then ful- 
filled the work which the Lord had commanded her. The young 
girl now asked for her dismissal. She wished to return to her 



AT ORLEANS. 225 

peasant home, to tend her parent's flocks again, and to live at 
her own will in her native village.* She had always believed 
that her career would be a short one. But Charles and his cap- 
tains were loath to lose the presence of one who had such an in- 
fluence upon the soldiery and the people. They persuaded her 
to stay with the army. She still showed the same bravery and 
zeal for the cause of France. She was as fervent as before in 
her prayers, and as exemplary in all religious duties. She still 
heard her heavenly voices, but she now no longer thought her- 
self the appointed minister of Heaven to lead her countrymen to 
certain victory. Our admiration for her courage and patriotism 
ought to be increased a hundred-fold by her conduct throughout 
the latter part of her career, amid dangers against which she no 
longer believed herself to be divinely secured. Indeed, she be- 
lieved herself doomed to perish in little more than a year ;j- but 
she still fought on as resolutely, if not as exultingly, as ever. 

As in the case of Arminius, the interest attached to individual 
heroism and virtue makes us trace the fate of Joan of Arc after 
she had saved her country. She served well with Charles's army 
in the capture of Laon, Soissons, Compeigne, Beauvais, and other 
strong places ; but in a premature attack on Paris, in September, 
1429, the French were repulsed, and Joan was severely wounded. 
In the winter she was again in the field with some of the French 
troops ; and in the following spring she threw herself into the 
fortress of Compeigne, which she had herself won for the French 
king in the preceding autumn, and which was now besieged by 
a strong Burgundian force. 

She was taken prisoner in a sally from Compeigne, on the 24th 
of May, and was imprisoned by the Burgundians first at Arras, 
and then at a place called Crotoy, on the Flemish coast, until 
November, when for payment of a large sum of money she was 
given up to the English, and taken to Rouen, which was then 
their main stronghold in France. 

"Sorrow it were, and shame to tell, 
The butchery that there befell." 

And the revolting details of the cruelties practised upon this 
young girl may be left to those whose duty as avowed biogra- 

* " Je voudrais bien qu'il voulut me faire ramener aupres mes pere et mere, 
a garder leurs brebis et betail, et faire ce que je voudrois faire." 

| " Des le commencement elle avait dit, ' II me faut employer : je ne lurerai 
qu'un an, ou guere plus.' " — Michelet, v., p. 101. 



226 JOAN OF ARCS VICTORY 

phers it is to describe them.* She was tried before an ecclesiasti- 
cal tribunal on the charge of witchcraft, and on the 30th of May, 
1431, she was burned alive in the market-place at Rouen. 

I will add but one remark on the character of the truest hero- 
ine that the world has ever seen. 

If any person can be found in the present age who would join 
in the scoffs of Voltaire against the Maid of Orleans and the 
heavenly voices by which she believed herself inspired, let him 
read the life of the wisest and best man that the heathen nations 
ever produced. Let him read of the heavenly voice by which 
Socrates believed himself to be constantly attended ; which cau- 
tioned him on his way from the field of battle at Delium, and 
which from his boyhood to the time of his death visited him 
with unearthly warnings, f Let the modern reader reflect upon 
this ; and then, unless he is prepared to term Socrates either fool 
or impostor, let him not dare to deride or vilify Joan of Arc. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN JOAN OF ARC'S VICTORY AT 
ORLEANS, a.d. 1429, AND THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH AR- 
MADA, a.d. 1588. 

a.d. 1452. Final expulsion of the English from France. 

1453. Constantinople taken, and the Roman empire of the 
East destroyed by the Turkish Sultan Mahomet II. 

1455. Commencement of the civil wars in England between 
the Houses of York and Lancaster. 

1479. Union of the Christian kingdoms of Spain under Fer- 
dinand and Isabella. 

1492. Capture of Grenada by Ferdinand and Isabella, and end 
of the Moorish dominion in Spain. 

1492. Columbus discovers the New World. 

1494. Charles VIII. of France invades Italy. 

1497. Expedition of Vasco di Gama to the East Indies round 
the Cape of Good Hope. 

* The whole of the " Proces de Condamnation et de Rehabilitation de 
Jeanne d'Arc" has been published in five volumes, by the Societe' de l'His- 
toire de France. All the passages from contemporary chroniclers and poets 
are added ; and the most ample materials are thus given for acquiring full 
information on a subject which is, to an Englishman, one of painful interest. 
There is an admirable essay on Joan of Arc in the 138th number of the 
Quarterly. 

f See Cicero, " De Divinatione," lib. i., sec. 41 ; and see the words of Soc- 
rates himself, in Plato, " Apol. Soc." : "On fxoi Qtlov n icai Saifiopiov yiyverai. 
Efxoi St tovt icriv Ik 7rcudbg dp^d/ievov, cpwvf) Tig yiyvofievr], k. t. \. 



AT ORLEANS. 227 

1503. Naples conquered from the French by the great Span- 
ish general, Gonsalvo of Cordova. 

1508. League of Cambray, by the pope, the emperor, and the 
King of France, against Venice. 

1509. Albuquerque establishes the empire of the Portuguese 
in the East Indies. 

1516. Death of Ferdinand of Spain; he is succeeded by his 
grandson Charles, afterwards the Emperor Charles V. 

1517. Dispute between Luther and Tetzel respecting the sale 
of indulgences, which is the immediate cause of the Reforma- 
tion. 

1519. Charles V. is elected Emperor of Germany. 

1520. Cortez conquers Mexico. 

1525. Francis I. of France defeated and taken prisoner by the 
imperial army at Pavia. 

1529. League of Smalcald formed by the Protestant princes 
of Germany. 

1 533. Henry VIII. renounces the papal supremacy. 

1533. Pizarro conquers Peru. 

1556. Abdication of the Emperor Charles V. Philip II. be- 
comes King of Spain, and Ferdinand I. Emperor of Germany. 

1557. Elizabeth becomes Queen of England. 

1557. The Spaniards defeat the French at the battle of St. 
Quentin. 

1571. Don John of Austria at the head of the Spanish fleet, 
aided by the Venetian and the papal squadrons, defeats the 
Turks at Lepanto. 

1572. Massacre of the Protestants in France on St. Bartholo- 
mew's Day. 

1579. The Netherlands revolt against Spain. 

1580. Philip II. conquers Portugal. 



228 DEFEAT OF 



CHAPTER X. 

THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA, A.D. 1588. 

" In that memorable year, when the dark cloud gathered round our coasts, 
when Europe stood by in fearful suspense to behold what should be the re- 
sult of that great cast in the game of human politics, what the craft of Rome, 
the power of Philip, the genius of Farnese could achieve against the island- 
queen, with her Drakes and Cecils — in that agony of the Protestant faith and 
English name." — Hallam, Const. Hist., vol. i., p. 220. 

On the afternoon of the 19th of July, a.d. 1588, a group of 
English captains was collected at the Bowling Green on the Hoe 
at Plymouth whose equals have never before or since been 
brought together, even at that favorite mustering-place of the 
heroes of the British navy. There was Sir Francis Drake, the 
first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of every 
Spanish coast in the Old World and the New ; there was Sir 
John Hawkins, the rough veteran of many a daring voyage on 
the African and American seas, and of many a desperate battle ; 
there was Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the earliest explorers of 
the Arctic seas in search of that Northwest Passage which is 
still the darling object of England's boldest mariners. There 
was the high-admiral of England, Lord Howard of Effingham, 
prodigal of all things in his country's cause, and who had re- 
cently had the noble daring to refuse to dismantle part of the 
fleet, though the queen had sent him orders to do so, in conse- 
quence of an exaggerated report that the enemy had been driven 
back and shattered by a storm. Lord Howard (whom contem- 
porary writers describe as being of a wise and noble courage, 
skilful in sea matters, wary and provident, and of great esteem 
among the sailors) resolved to risk his sovereign's anger, and 
to keep the ships afloat at his own charge, rather than that Eng- 
land should run the peril of losing their protection. 

Another of our Elizabethan sea-kings, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
was at that time commissioned to raise and equip the land-forces 
of Cornwall ; but, as he was also commander of Plymouth, we 
may well believe that he must have availed himself of the op- 
portunity of consulting with the lord-admiral and other high 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 229 

officers which was offered by the English fleet putting into that 
port; and we may look on Raleigh as one of the group that was 
assembled at the Bowling Green on the Hoe. Many other brave 
men and skilful mariners, besides the chiefs whose names have 
been mentioned, were there, enjoying, with true sailor-like mer- 
riment, their temporary relaxation from duty. In the harbor lay 
the English fleet with which they had just returned from a cruise 
to Corunna in search of information respecting the real condition 
and movements of the hostile Armada. Lord Howard had as- 
certained that our enemies, though tempest-tossed, were still for- 
midably strong; and fearing that part of their fleet might make 
for England in his absence, he had hurried back to the Devon- 
shire coast. He resumed his station at Plymouth, and waited 
there for certain tidings of the Spaniard's approach. 

A match at bowls was being played, in which Drake and 
other high officers of the fleet were engaged, when a small 
armed vessel was seen running before the wind into Plymouth 
harbor, with all sails set. Her commander landed in haste, and 
eagerly sought the place where the English lord-admiral and his 
captains were standing. His name was Fleming ; he was the 
master of a Scotch privateer; and he told the English officers 
that he had that morning seen the Spanish Armada off the Cor- 
nish coast. At this exciting information the captains began to 
hurry down to the water, and there was a shouting for the ship's 
boats; but Drake coolly checked his comrades, and insisted that 
the match should be played out. He said that there was plenty 
of time both to win the game and beat the Spaniards. The best 
and bravest match that was ever scored was resumed accord- 
ingly. Drake and his friends aimed their last bowls with the 
same steady, calculating coolness with which they were about to 
point their guns. The winning cast was made ; and then they 
went on board and prepared for action, with their hearts as light 
and their nerves as firm as they had been on the Hoe Bowling 
Green. 

Meanwhile the messengers and signals had been despatched 
fast and far through England, to warn each town and village 
that the enemy had come at last. In every seaport there was 
instant making ready by land and by sea; in every shire and 
every city there was instant mustering of horse and man.* But 

* In Macaulay's ballad on the Spanish Armada, the transmission of the 
tidings of the Armada's approach, and the arming of the English nation, are 
magnificently described. The progress of the fire-signals is depicted in lines 



230 DEFEAT OF 

England's best defence then, as ever, was her fleet ; and after 
warping laboriously out of Plymouth harbor against the wind, 
the lord-admiral stood westward under easy sail, keeping an 
anxious lookout for the Armada, the approach of which was 
soon announced by Cornish fishing-boats and signals from the 
Cornish cliffs. 

The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of 
our own days is so feeble, that it is not possible, without some 
reflection and care, to comprehend the full extent of the peril 
which England then ran from the power and the ambition of 
Spain, or to appreciate the importance of that crisis in the his- 
tory of the world. We had then no Indian or Colonial Empire 
save the feeble germs of our North American settlements, which 
Raleigh and Gilbert had recently planted. Scotland was a sepa- 
rate kingdom ; and Ireland was then even a greater source of 
weakness, and a worse nest of rebellion, than she has been in 
after-times. Queen Elizabeth had found at her accession an en- 
cumbered revenue, a divided people, and an unsuccessful foreign 
war, in which the last remnant of our possessions in France had 
been lost ; she had also a formidable pretender to her crown, 
whose interests were favored by all the Roman Catholic powers ; 
and even some of her subjects were warped by religious bigotry 
to deny her title, and to look on her as an heretical usurper. It 
is true that during the years of her reign which had passed away 
before the attempted invasion of 1588, she had revived the com- 
mercial prosperity, the national spirit, and the national loyalty 
of England. But her resources, to cope with the colossal power 
of Philip II., still seemed most scanty ; and she had not a sin- 
gle foreign ally, except the Dutch, who were themselves strug- 
gling hard, and, as it seemed, hopelessly, to maintain their revolt 
against Spain. 

On the other hand, Philip II. was absolute master of an em- 
pire so superior to the other states of the world in extent, in re- 
sources, and especially in military and naval forces, as to make 
the project of enlarging that empire into a universal monarchy 
seem a perfectly feasible scheme ; and Philip had both the am- 
bition to form that project and the resolution to devote all his 
energies and all his means to its realization. Since the down- 
fall of the Roman empire no such preponderating power had ex- 

which are worthy of comparison with the renowned passage in the Agamem- 
non which describes the transmission of the beacon-light announcing the fall 
of Troy, from Mount Ida to Argos. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 231 

isted in the world. During the mediaeval centuries the chief 
European kingdoms were slowly moulding themselves out of the 
feudal chaos. And, though their wars with each other were nu- 
merous and desperate, and several of their respective kings fig- 
ured for a time as mighty conquerors, none of them in those 
times acquired the Consistency and perfect organization which 
are requisite for a long-sustained career of aggrandizement. 
After the consolidation of the great kingdoms, they for some 
time kept each other in mutual check. During the first half of 
the sixteenth century, the balancing system was successfully prac- 
tised by European statesmen. But when Philip II. reigned, 
France had become so miserably weak through her civil wars 
that he had nothing to dread from the rival state, which had so 
long curbed his father, the emperor Charles V. In Germany, 
Italy, and Poland, he had either zealous friends and dependants, 
or weak and divided enemies. Against the Turks he had gained 
great and glorious successes ; and he might look round the con- 
tinent of Europe without discerning a single antagonist of whom 
he could stand in awe. Spain, when he acceded to the throne, 
was at the zenith of her power. The hardihood and spirit which 
the Arragonese, the Castilians, and the other nations of the Pen- 
insula had acquired during centuries of free institutions and 
successful war against the Moors had not yet become obliterated. 
Charles V. had, indeed, destroyed the liberties of Spain ; but that 
had been done too recently for its full evil to be felt in Philip's 
time. A people cannot be debased in a single generation ; and 
the Spaniards under Charles V. and Philip II. proved the truth 
of the remark that no nation is ever so formidable to its neigh- 
bors, for a time, as is a nation which, after being trained up in 
self-government, passes suddenly under a despotic ruler. The 
energy of democratic institutions survives for a few generations, 
and to it are superadded the decision and certainty which are 
the attributes of government when all its powers are directed 
by a single mind. It is true that this preternatural vigor is short- 
lived : national corruption and debasement gradually follow the 
loss of the national liberties ; but there is an interval before their 
workings are felt, and in that interval the most ambitious schemes 
of foreign conquest are often successfully undertaken. 

Philip had also the advantage of finding himself at the head 
of a large standing army in a perfect state of discipline and 
equipment, in an age when, except some few insignificant corps, 
standing armies were unknown in Christendom. The renown 
of the Spanish troops was justly high, and the infantry in par- 



232 DEFEAT OF 

ticular was considered the best in trie world. His fleet, also, 
was far more numerous and better appointed than that of any 
other European power ; and both his soldiers and his sailors 
had the confidence in themselves and their commanders which 
a long career of successful warfare alone can create. 

Besides the Spanish crown, Philip succeeded to the kingdom 
of Naples and Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, Franche-Comte, and 
the Netherlands. In Africa he possessed Tunis, Oran, the Cape 
Verde, and the Canary Islands ; and in Asia, the Philippine and 
Sunda Islands, and a part of the Moluccas. Beyond the Atlan- 
tic he was lord of the most splendid portions of the New World 
which " Columbus found for Castile and Leon." The empires 
of Peru and Mexico, New Spain, and Chili, with their abundant 
mines of the precious metals, Hispaniola and Cuba, and many 
other of the American islands, were provinces of the sovereign 
of Spain. 

Philip had, indeed, experienced the mortification of seeing 
the inhabitants of the Netherlands revolt against his authority, 
nor could he succeed in bringing back beneath the Spanish 
sceptre all the possessions which his father had bequeathed to 
him. But he had reconquered a large number of the towns and 
districts that originally took up arms against him. Belgium 
was brought more thoroughly into implicit obedience to Spain 
than she had been before her insurrection, and it was only Hol- 
land and the six other northern states that still held out against 
his arms. The contest had also formed a compact and veteran 
army on Philip's side, which, under his great general, the Prince 
of Parma, had been trained to act together under all difficulties 
and all vicissitudes of warfare ; and on whose steadiness and 
loyalty perfect reliance might be placed throughout any enter- 
prise, however difficult and tedious. Alexander Farnese, Prince 
of Parma, captain-general of the Spanish armies, and governor 
of the Spanish possessions in the Netherlands, was beyond all 
comparison the greatest military genius of his age. He was 
also highly distinguished for political wisdom and sagacity, and 
for his great administrative talents. He was idolized by his 
troops, whose affections he knew how to win without relaxing 
their discipline or diminishing his own authority. Pre-emi- 
nently cool and circumspect in his plans, but swift and energetic 
when the moment arrived for striking a decisive blow, neglect- 
ing no risk that caution could provide against, conciliating even 
the populations of the districts which he attacked by his scru- 
pulous good faith, his moderation, and his address, Farnese was 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 233 

one of the most formidable generals that ever could be placed 
at the head of an army designed not only to win battles, but to 
effect conquests. Happy it is for England and the world that 
this island was saved from becoming an arena for the exhibition 
of his powers. 

Whatever diminution the Spanish empire might have sus- 
tained in the Netherlands seemed to be more than compensated 
by the acquisition of Portugal, which Philip had completely 
conquered in 1580. Not only that ancient kingdom itself, but 
all the fruits of the maritime enterprises of the Portuguese had 
fallen into Philip's hands. All the Portuguese colonies in Amer- 
ica, Africa, and the East Indies acknowledged the sovereignty of 
the King of Spain ; who thus not only united the whole Iberian 
peninsula under his single sceptre, but had acquired a trans- 
marine empire, little inferior in wealth and extent to that which 
he had inherited at his accession. The splendid victory which 
his fleet, in conjunction with the papal and Venetian galleys, 
had gained at Lepanto over the Turks had deservedly exalted 
the fame of the Spanish marine throughout Christendom ; and 
when Philip had reigned thirty-five years the vigor of his em- 
pire seemed unbroken, and the glory of the Spanish arms had 
increased, and was increasing, throughout the world. 

One nation only had been his active, his persevering, and his 
successful foe. England had encouraged his revolted subjects 
in Flanders against him, and given them the aid in men and 
money without which they must soon have been humbled in 
the dust. English ships had plundered his colonies ; had defied 
his supremacy in the New World as well as the Old ; they had 
inflicted ignominious defeats on his squadrons ; they had cap- 
tured his cities, and burned his arsenals on the very coasts of 
Spain. The English had made Philip himself the object of 
personal insult. He was held up to ridicule in their stage plays 
and masques, and these scoffs at the man had (as is not unusual 
in such cases) excited the anger of the absolute king, even more 
vehemently than the injuries inflicted on his power.* Personal 
as well as political revenge urged him to attack England. Were 
she once subdued, the Dutch must submit ; France could not 
cope with him, the empire would not oppose him ; and universal 
dominion seemed sure to be the result of the conquest of that 
malignant island. 

There was yet another and a stronger feeling which armed 

* See Ranke's "History of the Popes," vol. ii., p. 170. 



234 DEFEAT OF 

King Philip against England. He was one of the sincerest and 
sternest bigots of his age. He looked on himself, and was 
looked on by others, as the appointed champion to extirpate 
heresy and re-establish the papal power throughout Europe. 
A powerful reaction against Protestantism had taken place since 
the commencement of the second half of the sixteenth century, 
and Philip believed that he was destined to complete it. The 
Reform doctrines had been thoroughly rooted out from Italy 
and Spain. Belgium, which had previously been half Protestant, 
had been reconquered both in allegiance and creed by Philip, 
and had become one of the most Catholic countries in the world. 
Half Germany had been won back to the old faith. In Savoy, 
in Switzerland, and many other countries, the progress of the 
counter-Reformation had been rapid and decisive. The Catho- 
lic league seemed victorious in France. The papal court itself 
had shaken off the supineness of recent centuries ; and, at the 
head of the Jesuits and the other new ecclesiastical orders, was 
displaying a vigor and a boldness worthy of the days of Hilde- 
brand or Innocent III. 

Throughout Continental Europe, the Protestants, discomfited 
and dismayed, looked to England as their protector and refuge. 
England was the acknowledged central point of Protestant power 
and policy ; and to conquer England was to stab Protestantism 
to the very heart. Sixtus V., the then reigning pope, earnestly 
exhorted Philip to this enterprise. And when the tidings reached 
Italy and Spain that the Protestant queen of England had put 
to death her Catholic prisoner, Mary Queen of Scots, the fury 
of the Vatican and Escurial knew no bounds. 

The Prince of Parma, who was appointed military chief of the 
expedition, collected on the coast of Flanders a veteran force 
that was to play a principal part in the conquest of England. 
Besides the troops who were in his garrisons, or under his col- 
ors, five thousand infantry were sent to him from Northern and 
Central Italy, four thousand from the kingdom of Naples, six 
thousand from Castile, three thousand from Arragon, three 
thousand from Austria and Germany, together with four squad- 
rons of heary-armed horse ; besides which he received forces 
from the Franche-Comte and the Walloon country. By his 
command, the forest of Waes was felled for the purpose of 
building flat-bottomed boats, which, floating down the rivers and 
canals to Meinport and Dunkerque, were to carry this large 
army of chosen troops to the mouth of the Thames, under the 
escort of the great Spanish fleet. Gun-carriages, fascines, ma- 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 235 

chines used in sieges, together with every material requisite for 
building bridges, forming camps, and raising fortresses, were 
to be placed on board the flotillas of the Prince of Parma, who 
followed up the conquest of the Netherlands while he was 
making preparations for the invasion of this island. Favored 
by the dissensions between the insurgents of the United Prov- 
inces and Leicester, the Prince of Parma had recovered De- 
venter, as well as a fort before Zutphen, which the English 
commanders, Sir William Stanley, the friend of Babington, and 
Sir Roland York, had surrendered to him, when with their 
troops they passed over to the service of Philip II., after the 
death of Mary Stuart, and he had also made himself master of 
the Sluys. His intention was to leave to the Count de Mans- 
feldt sufficient forces to follow up the war with the Dutch, 
which had now become a secondary object, while he himself 
went, at the head of fifty thousand men of the Armada and the 
flotilla, to accomplish the principal enterprise — that enterprise 
which, in the highest degree, affected the interests of the pon- 
tifical authority. In a bull, intended to be kept secret until the 
day of landing, Sixtus V., renewing the anathema fulminated 
against Elizabeth by Pius V. and Gregory XIII. , affected to de- 
pose her from our throne.* 

Elizabeth was denounced as a murderous heretic whose de- 
struction was an instant duty. A formal treaty was concluded 
(in June, 1587), by which the pope bound himself to contribute 
a million of scudi to the expenses of the war ; the money to be 
paid as soon as the king had actual possession of an English 
port. Philip, on his part, strained the resources of his vast em- 
pire to the utmost. The French Catholic chiefs eagerly co- 
operated with him. In the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, and 
along almost the whole coast from Gibraltar to Jutland, the 
preparations for the great armament were urged forward with 
all the earnestness of religious zeal, as well as of angry ambi- 
tion. " Thus," says the German historian of the popes,f " thus 
did the united powers of Italy and Spain, from which such 
mighty influences had gone forth over the whole world, now 
rouse themselves for an attack upon England ! The king had 
already compiled, from the archives of Simancas, a statement 
of the claims which he had to the throne of that country on the 
extinction of the Stuart line ; the most brilliant prospects, espe- 

* See Mignet's " Mary Queen of Scots," vol. ii. 
f Ranke, vol. ii., p. 172. 



236 DEFEAT OF 

cially that of a universal dominion of the seas, were associated 
in his mind with this enterprise. Everything seemed to con- 
spire to such end ; the predominance of Catholicism in Ger- 
many, the renewed attack upon the Huguenots in France, the 
attempt upon Geneva, and the enterprise against England. At 
the same moment a thoroughly Catholic prince, Sigismund III., 
ascended the throne of Poland, with the prospect also of future 
succession to the throne of Sweden. But whenever any princi- 
ple or power, be it what it may, aims at unlimited supremacy in 
Europe, some vigorous resistance to it, having its origin in the 
deepest springs of human nature, invariably arises. Philip II. 
had had to encounter newly awakened powers, braced by the 
vigor of youth, and elevated by a sense of their future destiny. 
The intrepid corsairs, who had rendered every sea insecure, now 
clustered round the coasts of their native island. The Protest- 
ants in a body — even the Puritans, although they had been 
subjected to as severe oppressions as the Catholics — rallied 
round their queen, who now gave admirable proof of her 
masculine courage, and her princely talent of winning the af- 
fections, and leading the minds, and preserving the allegiance 
of men." 

Ranke should have added that the English Catholics at this 
crisis proved themselves as loyal to their queen, and true to 
their country, as were the most vehement anti-Catholic zealots 
in the island. Some few traitors there were ; but, as a body, 
the Englishmen who held the ancient faith stood the trial of 
their patriotism nobly. The lord-admiral himself was a Catho- 
lic, and (to adopt the words of Hallam) " then it was that the 
Catholics in every county repaired to the standard of the lord- 
lieutenant, imploring that they might not be suspected of bar- 
tering the national independence for their religion itself." The 
Spaniard found no partisans in the country which he assailed, 
nor did England, self-wounded, 

"Lie at the proud foot of her enemy." 

For some time the destination of the enormous armament of 
Philip was not publicly announced. Only Philip himself, the 
Pope Sixtus, the Duke of Guise, and Philip's favorite minister, 
Mendoza, at first knew its real object. Rumors were sedulously 
spread that it was designed to proceed to the Indies to realize 
vast projects of distant conquest. Sometimes hints were dropped 
by Philip's ambassadors in foreign courts that his master had 
resolved on a decisive effort to crush his rebels in the Low 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 237 

Countries. But Elizabeth and her statesmen could not view 
the gathering of such a storm without feeling the probability 
of its bursting on their own shores. As early as the spring of 
1587, Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to cruise off the Tagus. 
Drake sailed into the Bay of Cadiz and the Lisbon Roads, and 
burned much shipping and military stores, causing thereby an 
important delay in the progress of the Spanish preparations. 
Drake called this " Singeing the King of Spain's beard." Eliz- 
abeth also increased her succors of troops to the Netherlanders, 
to prevent the Prince of Parma from overwhelming them, and 
from thence being at full leisure to employ his army against 
her dominions. 

Each party at this time thought it politic to try to amuse its 
adversary by pretending to treat for peace, and negotiations were 
opened at Ostend in the beginning of 1588, which were prolonged 
during the first six months of that year. Nothing real was 
effected, and probably nothing real had been intended to be 
effected, by them. But, in the meantime, each party had been 
engaged in important communications with the chief powers 
in France, in which Elizabeth seemed at first to have secured 
a great advantage, but in which Philip ultimately prevailed. 
" Henry III. of France was alarmed at the negotiations that 
were going on at Ostend ; and he especially dreaded any accom- 
modation between Spain and England, in consequence of which 
Philip II. might be enabled to subdue the United Provinces 
and make himself master of France. In order, therefore, to 
dissuade Elizabeth from any arrangement, he offered to support 
her, in case she were attacked by the Spaniards, with twice the 
number of troops which he was bound by the treaty of 1574 
to send to her assistance. He had a long conference with her 
ambassador, Stafford, upon this subject, and told him that the 
pope and the Catholic king had entered into a league against 
the queen, his mistress, and had invited himself and the Vene- 
tians to join them, but they had refused to do so. ' If the 
Queen of England,' he added, * concludes a peace with the Cath- 
olic king, that peace will not last three months, because the 
Catholic king will aid the League with all his forces to over- 
throw her, and you may imagine what fate is reserved for your 
mistress after that.' On the other hand, in order most effectu- 
ally to frustrate this negotiation, he proposed to Philip II. to 
form a still closer union between the two crowns of France and 
Spain ; and, at the same time, he secretly despatched a confi- 
dential envoy to Constantinople to warn the Sultan that, if he 



238 DEFEAT OF 

did not again declare war against the Catholic king, that mon- 
arch, who already possessed the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, 
the Indies, and nearly all Italy, would soon make himself mas- 
ter of England, and would then turn the forces of all Europe 
against the Turk's."* 

But Philip had an ally in France who was far more powerful 
than the French king. This was the Duke of Guise, the chief of 
the League, and the idol of the fanatic partisans of the Romish 
faith. Philip prevailed on Guise openly to take up arms against 
Henry III. (who was reviled by the Leaguers as a traitor to the 
true Church and a secret friend to the Huguenots), and thus 
prevent the French king from interfering in favor of Queen 
Elizabeth. " With this object, the commander, Juan Iniguez 
Moreo, was despatched by him in the early part of April to the 
Duke of Guise at Soissons. He met with complete success. 
He offered the Duke of Guise, as soon as he took the field 
against Henry III., three hundred thousand crowns, six thousand 
infantry, and twelve hundred pikemen, on behalf of the king 
his master, who would, in addition, withdraw his ambassador 
from the court of France, and accredit an envoy to the Catholic 
party. A treaty was concluded on these conditions, and the 
Duke of Guise entered Paris, where he was expected by the 
Leaguers, and whence he expelled Henry III. on the 12th of 
May by the insurrection of the barricades. A fortnight after 
this insurrection, which reduced Henry III. to impotence, and, 
to use the language of the Prince of Parma, did not even ' per- 
mit him to assist the Queen of England with his tears, as he 
needed them all to weep over his own misfortunes,' the Spanish 
fleet left the Tagus and sailed towards the British isles." f 

Meanwhile in England, from the sovereign on the throne to 
the peasant in the cottage, all hearts and hands made ready to 
meet the imminent deadly peril. Circular letters from the queen 
were sent round to the lord-lieutenants of the several counties re- 
quiring them " to call together the best sort of gentlemen under 
their lieutenancy, and to declare unto them these great prepara- 
tions and arrogant threatenings, now burst forth in action upon 
the seas, wherein every man's particular state, in the highest 
degree, could be touched in respect of country, liberty, wives, 
children, lands, lives, and (which was specially to be regarded) 
the profession of the true and sincere religion of Christ; and 
to lay before them the infinite and unspeakable miseries that 

* Mignet's " History of Mary Queen of Scots," vol. ii. f Ibid. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 239 

would fall out upon any such change, which miseries were evi- 
dently seen by the fruits of that hard and cruel government 
holden in countries not far distant. We do look," said the 
queen, "that the most part of them should have, upon this 
instant extraordinary occasion, a larger proportion of furniture, 
both for horsemen and footmen, but especially horsemen, than 
hath been certified ; thereby to be in their best strength against 
any attempt, or to be employed about our own person, or other- 
wise. Hereunto as we doubt not but by your good endeavors 
they will be the rather conformable, so also we assure ourselves 
that Almighty God will so bless these their loyal hearts borne 
towards us, their loving sovereign and their natural country, 
that all the attempts of any enemy whatsoever shall be made 
void and frustrate, to their confusion, your comfort, and to 
God's high glory." * 

Letters of a similar kind were also sent by the council to each 
of the nobility and to the great cities. The primate called on 
the clergy for their contributions ; and by every class of the 
community the appeal was responded to with liberal zeal, that 
offered more even than the queen required. The boasting threats 
of the Spaniards had roused the spirit of the nation ; and the 
whole people " were thoroughly irritated to stir up their whole 
forces for their defence against such prognosticated conquests ; 
so that, in a very short time, all the whole realm, and every 
corner, were furnished with armed men, on horseback and on 
foot ; and these continually trained, exercised, and put into 
bands, in warlike manner, as in no age ever was before in this 
realm. There was no sparing of money to provide horse, ar- 
mor, weapons, powder, and all necessaries ; no, nor want of 
provision of pioneers, carriages, and victuals, in every county 
of the realm, without exception, to attend upon the armies. 
And to this general furniture every man voluntarily offered, very 
many their services personally without wages, others money for 
armour and weapons, and to wage soldiers : a matter strange, 
and never the like heard of in this realm or elsewhere. And 
this general reason moved all men to large contributions, that 
when a conquest was to be withstood wherein all should be lost, 
it was no time to spare a portion." \ 

Our lion-hearted queen showed herself worthy of such a peo- 

* Strype, cited in Southey's " Naval History." 

f Copy of contemporary letter in the Harleian Collection, quoted by 
Southey. 



240 DEFEAT OF 

pie. A camp was formed at Tilbury ; and there Elizabeth rode 
through the ranks, encouraging her captains and her soldiers 
by her presence and her words. One of the speeches which 
she addressed to them during this crisis has been preserved ; 
and, though often quoted, it must not be omitted here. 

" My loving people," she said, " we have been persuaded by 
some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we com- 
mit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery ; but I 
assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and 
loving people. Let tyrants fear ! I have always so behaved 
myself, that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and 
safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects ; 
and, therefore, I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, 
not for my recreation or disport, but being resolved, in the 
midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to 
lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my people, my 
honor and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body 
but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and 
stomach of a king, and of a King of England too ; and think 
it foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, 
should dare to invade the borders of my realm ; to which, rath- 
er than any dishonor shall grow by me, I myself will take up 
arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of 
every one of your virtues in the field. I know already for your 
forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns ; and we 
do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid 
you. In the meantime, my lieutenant-general shall be in my 
stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or 
worthy subject, not doubting but by your obedience to my 
general, by your concord in the camp, and your valor in the 
field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies 
of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people." 

We have minute proofs of the skill with which the govern- 
ment of Elizabeth made its preparations ; for the documents 
still exist which were drawn up at that time by the ministers 
and military men who were consulted by Elizabeth respecting 
the defence of the country.* Among those summoned to the 
advice of their queen at this crisis were Sir Walter Raleigh, 
Lord Grey, Sir Francis Knolles, Sir Thomas Leighton, Sir John 
Norris, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Richard Bingham, and Sir 
Roger Williams ; and the biographer of Sir Walter Raleigh 

* See note in Tytler's "Life of Raleigh," p. 71. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 241 

observes that " These councillors were chosen by the queen, as 
being not only men bred to arms, and some of them, as Grey, 
Norris, Bingham, and Grenville, of high military talents, but 
of grave experience in affairs of state, and in the civil govern- 
ment of provinces — qualities by no means unimportant, when 
the debate referred not merely to the leading of an army or 
the plan of a campaign, but to the organization of a militia, 
and the communication with the magistrates for arming the 
peasantry, and encouraging them to a resolute and simultaneous 
resistance. From some private papers of Lord Burleigh, it ap- 
pears that Sir Walter took a principal share in these delibera- 
tions ; and the abstract of their proceedings, a document still 
preserved, is supposed to have been drawn up by him. They 
first prepared a list of places where it was likely the Spanish 
army might attempt a descent, as well as of those which lay 
most exposed to the force under the Duke of Parma. They 
next considered the speediest and most effectual means of de- 
fence, whether by fortification or the muster of a military ar- 
ray ; and, lastly, deliberated on the course to be taken for 
fighting the enemy if he should land." 

Some of Elizabeth's advisers recommended that the whole 
care and resources of the government should be devoted to the 
equipment of the armies, and that the enemy, when he at- 
tempted to land, should be welcomed with a battle on the shore. 
But the wiser counsels of Raleigh and others prevailed, who 
urged the importance of fitting out a fleet, that should encoun- 
ter the Spaniards at sea, and, if possible, prevent them from 
approaching the land at all. In Raleigh's great work on the 
" History of the World," he takes occasion, when discussing 
some of the events of the first Punic war, to give his reason- 
ings on the proper policy of England when menaced with in- 
vasion. Without doubt, we have there the substance of the 
advice which he gave to Elizabeth's council ; and the remarks 
of such a man, on such a subject, have a general and enduring 
interest, beyond the immediate peril which called them forth. 
Raleigh says :* " Surely I hold that the best way is to keep 
our enemies from treading upon our ground : wherein if we 
fail, then must we seek to make him wish that he had stayed 
at his own home. In such a case if it should happen, our judg- 
ments are to weigh many particular circumstances, that belongs 
not unto this discourse. But making the question general, the 

* " Historie of the World," pp. 799-801. 



242 DEFEAT OF 

positive, Whether England, -without the help of her fleet, be able 
to debar an enemy from landing ; I hold that it is unable so to 
do ; and therefore I think it most dangerous to make the ad- 
venture. For the encouragement of a first victory to an enemy, 
and the discouragement of being beaten, to the invaded, may 
draw after it a most perilous consequence. 

" Great difference I know there is, and a diverse considera- 
tion to be had, between such a country as France is, strength- 
ened with many fortified places, and this of ours, where our 
ramparts are but the bodies of men. But I say that an army 
to be transported over sea, and to be landed again in an ene- 
my's country, and the place left to the choice of the invader, 
cannot be resisted on the coast of England, without a fleet to 
impeach it ; no, nor on the coast of France, or any other coun- 
try; except every creek, port, or sandy bay had a powerful 
army in each of them, to make opposition. For let the suppo- 
sition be granted that Kent is able to furnish twelve thousand 
foot, and that those twelve thousand be layed in the three 
best landing-places within that county, to wit, three thousand 
at Margat, three thousand at the Nesse, and six thousand at 
Foulkstone, that is, somewhat equally distant from them both ; 
as also that two of these troops (unless some other order be 
thought more fit) be directed to strengthen the third, when 
they shall see the enemies' fleet to head towards it : I say, that 
notwithstanding this provision, if the enemy, setting sail from 
the Isle of Wight in the first watch of the night, and towing 
their long boats at their sterns, shall arrive by dawn of day at 
the Nesse, and thrust their army on shore there, it will be hard 
for those three thousand that are at Margat (twenty-and-four 
long miles from thence) to come time enough to reinforce their 
fellows at the Nesse. Nay, how shall they at Foulkstone be 
able to do it, who are nearer by more than half the way ? see- 
ing that the enemy, at his first arrival, will either make his en- 
trance by force, with three or four shot of great artillery, and 
quickly put the first three thousand that are entrenched at the 
Nesse to run, or else give them so much to do that they shall 
be glad to send for help to Foulkstone, and perhaps to Margat, 
whereby those places will be left bare. Now let us suppose 
that all the twelve thousand Kentish soldiers arrive at the 
Nesse, ere the enemy can be ready to disembark his army, so 
that he will find it unsafe to land in the face of so many pre- 
pared to withstand him, yet must we believe that he will play 
the best of his own game (having liberty to go which way he 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 243 

list), and, under covert of the night, set sail towards the east, 
where what shall hinder him to take ground either at Margat, 
the Downes, or elsewhere, before they, at the Nesse, can be well 
aware of his departure ? Certainly there is nothing more easy 
than to do it. Yea, the like may be said of Weymouth, Pur- 
beck, Poole, and of all landing-places on the southwest. For 
there is no man ignorant that ships, without putting themselves 
out of breath, will easily outrun the souldiers that coast them. 
' Les armees ne volent point en poste ' — ' Armies neither flye, nor 
run post ' — saith a marshal of France. And I know it to be true, 
that a fleet of ships may be seen at sunset, and after it at the 
Lizard, yet by the next morning they may recover Portland, 
whereas an army of foot shall not be able to march it in six 
dayes. Again, when those troops lodged on the sea-shores 
shall be forced to run from place to place in vain, after a fleet 
of ships, they will at length sit down in the midway, and leave 
all at adventure. But say it were otherwise, that the invading 
enemy will offer to land in some such place, where there shall 
be an army of ours ready to receive him ; yet it cannot be 
doubted, but that when the choice of all our trained bands, and 
the choice of our commanders and captains, shall be drawn to- 
gether (as they were at Tilbury in the year 1588) to attend the 
person of the prince, and for the defence of the city of Lon- 
don, they that remain to guard the coast can be of no such 
force as to encounter an army like unto that wherewith it was 
intended that the Prince of Parma should have landed in Eng- 
land. 

" For end of this digression, I hope that this question shall 
never come to trial ; his majestie's many moveable forts will 
forbid the experience. And although the English will no less 
disdain that any nation under heaven can do, to be beaten, upon 
their own ground, or elsewhere, by a foreign enemy ; yet to 
entertain those that shall assail us with their own beef in their 
bellies, and before they eat of our Kentish capons, I take it to 
be the wisest way ; to do which his majestie, after God, will 
employ his good ships on the sea, and not trust in any intrench- 
ment upon the shore." 

The introduction of steam as a propelling power at sea has 
added tenfold weight to these arguments of Raleigh. On the 
other hand, a well-constructed system of railways, especially of 
coast-lines, aided by the operation of the electric telegraph, 
would give facilities for concentrating a defensive army to op- 
pose an enemy on landing, and for moving troops from place 



244 DEFEAT OF 

to place in observation of the movements of the hostile fleet, 
such as would have astonished Sir Walter even more than the 
sight of vessels passing rapidly to and fro without the aid of 
wind or tide. The observation of the French marshal, whom 
he quotes, is now no longer correct. Armies can be made to 
pass from place to place almost with the speed of wings, and 
far more rapidly than any post-travelling that was known in the 
Elizabethan or any other age. Still, the presence of a sufficient 
armed force at the right spot, at the right time, can never be 
made a matter of certainty ; and even after the changes that 
have taken place, no one can doubt but that the policy of Ra- 
leigh is that which England should ever seek to follow in defen- 
sive war. At the time of the Armada, that policy certainly 
saved the country, if not from conquest, at least from deplora- 
ble calamities. If indeed the enemy had landed, we may be 
sure that he would have been heroically opposed. But history 
shows us so many examples of the superiority of veteran troops 
over new levies, however numerous and brave, that without 
disparaging our countrymen's soldierly merits, we may well be 
thankful that no trial of them was then made on English land. 
Especially must we feel this when we contrast the high mili- 
tary genius of the Prince of Parma, who would have headed 
the Spaniards, with the imbecility of the Earl of Leicester, to 
whom the deplorable spirit of favoritism, which formed the 
greatest blemish in Elizabeth's character, had then committed 
the chief command of the English armies. 

The ships of the royal navy at this time amounted to no more 
than thirty-six ; but the most serviceable merchant vessels were 
collected from all the ports of the country ; and the citizens of 
London, Bristol, and the other great seats of commerce showed 
as liberal a zeal in equipping and manning vessels as the nobil- 
ity and gentry displayed in mustering forces by land. The sea- 
faring population of the coast, of every rank and station, was 
animated by the same ready spirit ; and the whole number of 
seamen who came forward to man the English fleet was 17,472. 
The number of the ships that were collected was 191 ; and the 
total amount of their tonnage 31,985. There was one ship in the 
fleet (the Triumph) of 1100 tons, one of 1000, one of 900, two of 
800 each, three of 600, five of 500, five of 400, six of 300, six of 
250, twenty of 200, and the residue of inferior burden. Appli- 
cation was made to the Dutch for assistance ; and, as Stowe ex- 
presses it, " The Hollanders came roundly in, with threescore 
sail, brave ships of war, fierce and full of spleen, not so much 



THE SPANISH AHMAD A. 245 

for England's aid, as in just occasion for their own defence, 
these men foreseeing the greatness of the danger that might 
ensue if the Spaniards should chance to win the day and get 
the mastery over them ; in due regard whereof their manly 
courage was inferior to none." 

We have more minute information of the numbers and equip- 
ment of the hostile forces than we have of our own. In the first 
volume of Hakluyt's " Voyages," dedicated to Lord Effingham, 
who commanded against the Armada, there is given (from the con- 
temporary foreign writer Meteran) a more complete and detailed 
catalogue than has perhaps ever appeared of a similar armament. 

" A very large and particular description of this navie was 
put in print and published by the Spaniards ; wherein was set 
downe the number, names, and burthens of the shippes, the 
number of mariners and souldiers throughout the whole fleete ; 
likewise the quantitie of their ordinance, of their armour, of 
bullets, of match, of gun-poulder, of victuals, and of all their 
navall furniture, was in the saide description particularized. 
Unto all these were added the names of the governours, cap- 
taines, noblemen, and gentlemen voluntaries, of whom there was 
so great a multitude, that scarce was there any family of ac- 
compt, or any one principall man throughout all Spaine, that 
had not a brother, sonne, or kinsman in that fleete ; who all of 
them were in good hope to purchase unto themselves in that 
navie (as they termed it) invincible, endless glory and renown, 
and to possess themselves of great seigniories and riches in 
England, and in the Low Countreys. But because the said de- 
scription was translated and published out of Spanish into divers 
other languages, we will here only make an abridgement or brief 
rehearsal thereof. 

" Portugal furnished and set foorth under the conduct of the 
Duke of Medina Sidonia, generall of the fleete, ten galeons, two 
zabraes, 1300 mariners, 3300 souldiers, 300 great pieces, with 
all requisite furniture. 

" Biscay, under the conduct of John Martin es de Ricalde, ad- 
miral of the whole fleete, set forth tenne galeons, four pataches, 
700 mariners, 2000 souldiers, 260 great pieces, etc. 

" Guipusco, under the conduct of Michael de Orquendo, tenne 
galeons, four pataches, 700 mariners, 2000 souldiers, 310 great 
pieces. 

" Italy with the Levant islands, under Martine de Vertendona, 
ten galeons, 800 mariners, 2000 souldiers, 310 great pieces, &c. 

" Castile, under Diego Flores de Valdez, fourteen galeons, 



246 DEFEAT OF 

two pataches, 1700 mariners, 2400 souldiers, and 380 great 
pieces, <fec. 

"Andaluzia, under the conduct of Petro de Valdez, ten 
galeons, one patache, 800 mariners, 2400 souldiers, 280 great 
pieces, &c. 

" Item, under the conduct of John Lopez de Medina, twenty- 
three great Flemish hulkes, with 700 mariners, 3200 souldiers, 
and 400 great pieces. 

" Item, under Hugo de Moncada, foure galliasses, containing 
1200 gally-slaves, 460 mariners, 870 souldiers, 200 great pieces, 
&c. 

" Item, under Diego de Mandrana, foure gallies of Portugall, 
with 888 gally-slaves, 360 mariners, twenty great pieces, and 
other requisite furniture. 

" Item, under Anthonie de Mendoza, twenty-two pataches and 
zabraes, with 574 mariners, 488 souldiers, and 193 great pieces. 

" Besides the ships aforementioned, there were twenty cara- 
vels rowed with oares, being appointed to perform necessary 
services under the greater ships, insomuch that all the ships ap- 
pertayning to this navie amounted unto the summe of 150, eche 
one being sufficiently provided of furniture and victuals. 

" The number of mariners in the saide rleete were above 8000, 
of slaves 2088, of souldiers 20,000 (besides noblemen and gen- 
tlemen voluntaries), of great cast pieces 2600. The aforesaid 
ships were of an huge and incredible capacitie and receipt : for 
the whole fleete was large enough to containe the burthen of 
60,000 tunnes. 

" The galeons were 64 in number, being of an huge bignesse, 
and very flately built, being of marveilous force also, and so 
high, that they resembled great castles, most fit to defend them- 
selves and to withstand any assault, but in giving any other 
ships the encounter farr inferiour unto the English and Dutch 
ships, which can with great dexteritie weild and turne them- 
selves at all assayes. The upperworke of the said galeons was 
of thicknesse and strength sufficient to bear off musket-shot. 
The lower worke and the timbers thereof were out of measure 
strong, being framed of plankes and ribs foure or five foote in 
thicknesse, insomuch that no bullets could pierce them, but such 
as were discharged hard at hand ; which afterward prooved true, 
for a great number of bullets were found to sticke fast within 
the massie substance of those thicke plankes. Great and well 
pitched cables were twined about the masts of their shippes, to 
strengthen them against the battery of shot. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 247 

" The galliasses were of such bignesse, that they contained 
within them chambers, chapels, turrets, pulpits, and other com- 
modities of great houses. The galliasses were rowed with great 
oares, there being in eche one of them 300 slaves for the same 
purpose, and were able to do great service with the force of their 
ordinance. All these, together with the residue aforenamed, 
were furnished and beautified with trumpets, streamers, banners, 
warlike ensignes, and other such like ornaments. 

"Their pieces of brazen ordinance were 1600, and of yron 
1000. 

"The bullets thereto belonging were 120 thousand. 

" Item of gun-poulder, 5600 quintals. Of matche, 1200 quin- 
tals. Of muskets and kaleivers, 7000. Of haleberts and parti- 
sans, 10,000. 

" Moreover they had great store of canons, double-canons, 
culverings and field-pieces for land services. 

" Likewise they were provided of all instruments necessary on 
land to conveigh and transport their furniture from place to 
place ; as namely of carts, wheeles, wagons, &c. Also they had 
spades, mattocks, and baskets, to set pioners to worke. They 
had in like sort great store of mules and horses, and whatsoever 
else was requisite for a land-armie. They were so well stored 
of biscuit, that for the space of halfe a yeere, they might allow 
eche person in the whole fleete halfe a quintall every month ; 
whereof the whole summe amounteth unto an hundreth thou- 
sand quintals. 

"Likewise of wine they had 147 thousand pipes, sufficient 
also for halfe a yeeres expedition. Of bacon, 6500 quintals. Of 
cheese, three thousand quintals. Besides fish, rise, beanes, 
pease, oile, vinegar, &c. 

" Moreover they had 12,000 pipes of fresh water, and all other 
necessary provision, as, namely, candles, lanternes, lampes, sailes, 
hempe, oxe-hides, and lead to stop holes that should be made 
with the battery of gun-shot. To be short, they brought all 
things expedient, either for a fleete by sea, or for an armie by 
land. 

" This navie (as Diego Pimentelli afterward confessed) was 
esteemed by the king himselfe to containe 32,000 persons, and 
to cost him every day 30 thousand ducates. 

"There were in the said navie five terzaes of Spaniards (which 
terzaes the Frenchmen call regiments), under the command of 
five governours, termed by the Spaniards masters of the field, 
and amongst the rest there were many olde and expert souldiers 



248 DEFEAT OF 

chosen out of the garisons of Sicilie, Naples, and Tercera. Their 
captaines or colonels were Diego Pimentelli, Don Francisco de 
Toledo, Don Alonco de Lucon, Don Nicolas de Isla, Don 
Augustin de Mexia ; who had each of them thirty-two compa- 
nies under their conduct. Besides the which companies, there 
were many bands also of Castilians and Portugals, every one of 
which had their peculiar governours, captains, officers, colours, 
and weapons." 

While this huge armada was making ready in the southern 
ports of the Spanish dominions, the Prince of Parma, with al- 
most incredible toil and skill, collected a squadron of war-ships 
at Dunkirk, and his flotilla of other ships and of flat-bottomed 
boats for the transport to England of the picked troops, which 
were designed to be the main instruments in subduing England. 
Thousands of workmen were employed, night and day, in the 
construction of these vessels, in the ports of Flanders and Bra- 
bant. One hundred of the kind called hendes, built at Ant- 
werp, Bruges, and Ghent, and laden with provision and ammu- 
nition, together with sixty flat-bottomed boats, each capable of 
carrying thirty horses, were brought, by means of canals and 
fosses dug expressly for the purpose, to Nieuport and Dunkirk. 
One hundred smaller vessels were equipped at the former place, 
and thirty-two at Dunkirk, provided with twenty thousand empty 
barrels, and with materials for making pontoons, for stopping 
up the harbours, and raising forts and entrenchments. The 
army which these vessels were designed to convey to England 
amounted to thirty thousand strong, besides a body of four 
thousand cavalry, stationed at Courtroi, composed chiefly of the 
ablest veterans of Europe ; invigorated by rest (the siege of 
Sluys having been the only enterprise in which they were em- 
ployed during the last campaign) and excited by the hopes of 
plunder and the expectation of certain conquest.* And " to 
this great enterprise and imaginary conquest, divers princes and 
noblemen came from divers countries ; out of Spain came the 
Duke of Pestrana, who was said to be the son of Ruy Gomez de 
Silva, but was held to be the king's bastard ; the Marquis of 
Bourgou, one of the Archduke Ferdinand's sons, by Philippina 
Welserine ; Don Vespasian Gonzaga, of the house of Mantua, a 
great soldier, who had been viceroy in Spain ; Giovanni de Med- 
ici, Bastard of Florence ; Amedo, Bastard of Savoy, with many 
such like, besides others of meaner quality."f 

* Davis's "Holland," vol. ii., p. 219. f Grimstone, cited in Southey. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 249 

Philip had been advised by the deserter, Sir William Stanley, 
not to attack England in the first instance, but first to effect a 
landing and secure a strong position in Ireland ; his admiral, 
Santa Cruz, had recommended him to make sure, in the first in- 
stance, of some large harbor on the coast of Holland or Zealand, 
where the Armada, having entered the Channel, might find shel- 
ter in case of storm, and whence it could sail without difficulty 
for England ; but Philip rejected both these counsels, and di- 
rected that England itself should be made the immediate object 
of attack ; and on the 20th of May the Armada left the" Tagus, 
in the pomp and pride of supposed invincibility, and amid the 
shouts of thousands, who believed that England was already con- 
quered. But steering to the northward, and before it was clear 
of the coast of Spain, the Armada was assailed by a violent 
storm, and driven back with considerable damage to the ports 
of Biscay and Galicia. It had, however, sustained its heaviest 
loss before it left the Tagus, in the death of the veteran admiral 
Santa Cruz, who had been destined to guide it against England. 

This experienced sailor, notwithstanding his diligence and 
success, had been unable to keep pace with the impatient ardor 
of his master. Philip II. had reproached him with his dilatori- 
ness, and had said with ungrateful harshness, "You make an ill 
return for all my kindness to you." These words cut the vet- 
eran's heart, and proved fatal to Santa Cruz. Overwhelmed with 
fatigue and grief, he sickened and died. Philip II. had replaced 
him by Alonzo Perez de Gusman, Duke of Medina Sidonia, one 
of the most powerful of the Spanish grandees, but wholly un- 
qualified to command such an expedition. He had, however, as 
his lieutenants, two seamen of proved skill and bravery, Juan de 
Martinez Recalde of Biscay, and Miguel Orquendo of Guipuzcoa. 

The report of the storm which had beaten back the Armada 
reached England with much exaggeration, and it was supposed 
by some of the queen's counsellors that the invasion would now 
be deferred to another year. But Lord Howard of Effingham, 
the lord high-admiral of the English fleet, judged more wisely 
that the danger was not yet passed, and, as already mentioned, 
had the moral courage to refuse to dismantle his principal ships, 
though he received orders to that effect. But it was not How- 
ard's design to keep the English fleet in costly inaction, and to 
wait patiently in our own harbors till the Spaniards had re- 
cruited their strength and sailed forth again to attack us. The 
English seamen of that age (like their successors) loved to strike 
better than to parry, though, when emergency required, they 



250 DEFEAT OF 

could be patient and cautious in their bravery. It was resolved 
to proceed to Spain to learn the enemy's real condition, and to 
deal him any blow for which there might be opportunity. In 
this bold policy we may well believe him to have been eagerly 
seconded by those who commanded under him. Howard and 
Drake sailed accordingly to Corunna, hoping to surprise and at- 
tack some part of the Armada in that harbor ; but when near 
the coast of Spain, the north wind, which had blown up to that 
time, veered suddenly to the south ; and fearing that the Span- 
iards might put to sea and pass him unobserved, Howard re- 
turned to the entrance of the Channel, where he cruised for 
some time on the lookout for the enemy. In part of a letter 
written by him at this period, he speaks of the difficulty of 
guarding so large a breadth of sea — a difficulty that ought not 
to be forgotten when modern schemes of defence against hostile 
fleets from the south are discussed. " I myself," he wrote, "do 
lie in the midst of the Channel, with the greatest force ; Sir 
Francis Drake hath twenty ships and four or five pinnaces, 
which lie towards Ushant ; and Mr. Hawkins, with as many more, 
lieth towards Scilly. Thus we are fain to do, or else with this 
wind they might pass us by, and we never the wiser. The Sleeve 
is another manner of thing than it was taken for : we find it by 
experience and daily observation to be 100 miles over — a large 
room for me to look unto !" But after some time further re- 
ports that the Spaniards were inactive in their harbor, where they 
were suffering severely from sickness, caused Howard also to 
relax in his vigilance ; and he returned to Plymouth with the 
greater part of his fleet. 

On the 12th of July, the Armada having completely refitted, 
sailed again for the Channel, and reached it without obstruction 
or observation by the English. 

The design of the Spaniards was, that the Armada should give 
them, at least for a time, the command of the sea, and that it 
should join the squadron which Parma had collected off Calais. 
Then, escorted by an overpowering naval force, Parma and his 
army were to embark in their flotilla, and cross the sea to Eng- 
land, where they were to be landed, together with the troops 
which the Armada brought from the ports of Spain. The 
scheme was not dissimilar to one formed against England a lit- 
tle more than two centuries afterwards. 

As Napoleon, in 1805, waited with his army and flotilla at 
Boulogne, looking for Villeneuve to drive away the English 
cruisers, and secure him a passage across the Channel, so Par- 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 251 

ma, in 1588, waited for Medina Sidonia to drive away the Dutch 
and English squadrons that watched his flotilla, and to enable 
his veterans to cross the sea to the land that they were to con- 
quer. Thanks to Providence, in each case England's enemy 
waited in vain ! 

Although the numbers of sail which the queen's government 
and the patriotic zeal of volunteers had collected for the defence 
of England exceeded the number of sail in the Spanish fleet, the 
English ships were, collectively, far inferior in size to their ad- 
versaries ; their aggregate tonnage being less by half than that 
of the enemy. In the number of guns and weight of metal the 
disproportion was still greater. The English admiral was also 
obliged to subdivide his force ; and Lord Henry Seymour, with 
forty of the best Dutch and English ships, was employed in 
blockading the hostile ports in Flanders, and in preventing the 
Prince of Parma from coming out of Dunkirk. 

The orders of King Philip to the Duke of Medina Sidonia 
w r ere that he should, on entering the Channel, keep near the 
French coast, and, if attacked by the English ships, avoid an 
action, and steer on to Calais roads, where the Prince of Parma's 
squadron was to join him. The hope of surprising and destroy- 
ing the English fleet in Plymouth led the Spanish admiral to 
deviate from these orders, and to stand across to the English 
shore ; but, on finding that Lord Howard was coming out to 
meet him, he resumed the original plan, and determined to bend 
his way steadily towards Calais and Dunkirk, and to keep merely 
on the defensive against such squadrons of the English as might 
come up with him. 

It was on Saturday, the 20th of July, that Lord Effingham 
came in sight of his formidable adversaries. The Armada was 
drawn up in form of a crescent, which from horn to horn meas- 
ured some seven miles. There was a southwest wind ; and be- 
fore it the vast vessels sailed slowly on. The English let them 
pass by ; and then, following in the rear, commenced an attack 
on them. A running fight now took place, in which some of 
the best ships of the Spaniards were captured ; many more re- 
ceived heavy damage ; while the English vessels, which took 
care not to close with their huge antagonists, but availed them- 
selves of their superior celerity in tacking and manoeuvring, suf- 
fered little comparative loss. Each day added not only to the 
spirit, but to the number of Effingham's force. Raleigh, Ox- 
ford, Cumberland, and Sheffield joined him ; and " the gentle- 
men of England hired ships from all parts at their own charge, 



252 DEFEAT OF 

and with one accord came flocking thither as to a set field, where 
glory was to be attained, and faithful service performed unto 
their prince and their country." 

Raleigh justly praises the English admiral for his skilful tac- 
tics. He says : * " Certainly, he that will happily perform a 
fight at sea must be skilful in making choice of vessels to fight 
in ; he must believe that there is more belonging to a good man- 
of-war upon the waters than great daring ; and must know that 
there is a great deal of difference between fighting loose or at 
large and grappling. The guns of a slow ship pierce as well 
and make as great holes as those in a swift. To clap ships to- 
gether, without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than 
to a man of war ; for by such an ignorant bravery was Peter 
Strossie lost at the Azores, when he fought against the Marquis 
of Santa Cruza. In like sort had the Lord Charles Howard, Ad- 
miral of England, been lost in the year 1588, if he had not been 
better advised than a great many malignant fools were, that 
found fault with his demeanor. The Spaniards had an army 
aboard them, and he had none ; they had more ships than he 
had, and of higher building and charging ; so that, had he en- 
tangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had 
greatly endangered this kingdom of England. For twenty men 
upon the defences are equal to a hundred that board and enter ; 
whereas then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had a hundred for 
twenty of ours to defend themselves withall. But our admiral 
knew his advantage, and held it : which, had he not done, he 
had not been worthy to have held his head." 

The Spanish admiral also showed great judgment and firm- 
ness in following the line of conduct that had been traced out 
for him; and on the 27th of July he brought his fleet unbroken, 
though sorely distressed, to anchor in Calais roads. But the 
King of Spain had calculated ill the number and activity of the 
English and Dutch fleets ; as the old historian expresses it, " It 
seemeth that the Duke of Parma and the Spaniards grounded 
upon a vain and presumptuous expectation, that all the ships of 
England and of the Low Countreys would at the first sight of 
the Spanish and Dunkerk navie have betaken themselves to 
flight, yeelding them sea-room, and endeavoring only to defend 
themselves, their havens, and sea-coasts from invasion. Where- 
fore their intent and purpose was, that the Duke of Parma, in 
his small and flat-bottomed ships should, as it were, under the 

* " Historic of the World," p. 791. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 253 

shadow and wings of the Spanish fleet, convey over all his 
troupes, armour, and warlike provisions, and with their forces so 
united, should invade England ; or, while the English fleet were 
busied in fight against the Spanish, should enter upon any 
part of the coast which he thought to be most convenient. 
Which invasion (as the captives afterwards confessed) the 
Duke of Parma thought first to have attempted by the river of 
Thames ; upon the banks whereof, having at the first arrivall 
landed twenty or thirty thousand of his principall souldiers, he 
supposed that he might easily have wonne the citie of London ; 
both because his small shippes should have followed and assist- 
ed his land-forces, and also for that the citie itselfe was but 
meanely fortified and easie to ouercome, by reason of the citi- 
zens' delicacie and discontinuance from the warres, who, with 
continuall and constant labour, might be vanquished, if they 
yielded not at the first assault." * 

But the English and Dutch found ships and mariners enough 
to keep the Armada itself in check, and at the same time to 
block up Parma's flotilla. The greater part of Seymour's 
squadron left its cruising-ground off Dunkirk to join the Eng- 
lish admiral off Calais ; but the Dutch manned about five-and- 
thirty sail of good ships, with a strong force of soldiers on 
board, all well seasoned to the sea-service, and with these they 
blockaded the Flemish ports that were in Parma's power. Still 
it was resolved by the Spanish admiral and the prince to en- 
deavor to effect a junction, which the English seamen were 
equally resolute to prevent ; and bolder measures on our side 
now became necessary. 

The Armada lay off Calais, with its largest ships ranged out- 
side, " like strong castles fearing no assault ; the lesser placed 
in the middle ward." The English admiral could not attack 
them in their position without great disadvantage ; but on the 
night of the 29th he sent eight fire-ships among them, with al- 
most equal effect to that of the fire-ships which the Greeks so 
often employed against the Turkish fleets in their late war of 
independence. The Spaniards cut their cables and put to sea 
in confusion. One of the largest galeasses ran foul of another 
vessel and was stranded. The rest of the fleet was scattered 
about on the Flemish coast, and when the morning broke it 
was with difficulty and delay that they obeyed their admiral's 
signal to range themselves round him near Gravelines. Now 

*Hakluvt's "Voyages," vol. i., p. GO*. 



254 DEFEAT OF 

was the golden opportunity for the English to assail them, and 
prevent them from ever letting loose Parma's flotilla against 
England; and nobly was that opportunity used. Drake and 
Fenner were the first English captains who attacked the un- 
wieldy leviathans ; then came Fenton, Southwell, Burton, Cross, 
Raynor, and then the lord admiral, with Lord Thomas Howard 
and Lord Sheffield. The Spaniards only thought of forming 
and keeping close together, and were driven by the English 
past Dunkirk, and far away from the Prince of Parma, who, in 
watching their defeat from the coast, must, as Drake expressed 
it, have chafed like a bear robbed of her whelps. This was in- 
deed the last and the decisive battle between the two fleets. It 
is, perhaps, best described in the very words of the contempo- 
rary writer as we may read them in Hakluyt.* 

" Upon the 29th of July in the morning, the Spanish fleet, 
after the forsayd tumult, having arranged themselues againe 
into order, were, within sight of Greveling, most bravely and 
furiously encountered by the English ; where they once again 
got the wind of the Spaniards ; who suffered themselues to be 
deprived of the commodity of the place in Caleis road, and 
of the advantage of the wind neer unto Dunkerk, rather than 
they would change their array or separate their forces now con- 
joyned and united together, standing only upon their defence. 

" And howbeit there were many excellent and warlike ships 
in the English fleet, yet scarce were there 22 or 23 among 
them all, which matched 90 of the Spanish ships in the bigness, 
or could conveniently assault them. Wherefore the English 
ships using their prerogative of nimble steerage, whereby they 
could turn and wield themselues with the wind which way 
they listed, came often times very near upon the Spaniards, 
and charged them so sore, that now and then they were but a 
pike's length asunder : and so continually giving them one 
broadside after another, they discharged all their shot both 
great and small upon them, spending one whole day from 
morning till night in that violent kind of conflict, untill such 
time as powder and bullets failed them. In regard of which 
want they thought it convenient not to pursue the Spaniards 
any longer, because they had many great vantages of the Eng- 
lish, namely, for the extraordinary bigness of their ships, and 
also for that they were so neerley conjoyned, and kept together 
in so good array, that they could by no means be fought with- 

* Vol. i., p. 602. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 255 

all one to one. The English thought, therefore, that they had 
right well acquitted themselues, in chasing the Spaniards first 
from Caleis, and then from Dunkerk, and by that meanes to 
have hindered them from joyning with the Duke of Parma his 
forces, and getting the wind of them, to have driven them 
from their own coasts. 

" The Spaniards that day sustained great loss and damage, hav- 
ing many of their shippes shotthorow and thorow, and they dis- 
charged likewise great store of ordinance against the English; 
who, indeed, sustained some hindrance, but not comparable to the 
Spaniard's loss : for they lost not any one ship or person of ac- 
count, for very diligent inquisition being made, the English 
men all that time wherein the Spanish navy sayled upon their 
seas, are not found to haue wanted aboue one hundred of their 
people : albeit Sir Francis Drake's ship was pierced with shot 
aboue forty times, and his very cabben was twice shot thorow, 
and about the conclusion of the fight, the bed of a certaine 
gentleman lying weary thereupon, was taken quite from under 
him with the force of a bullet. Likewise, as the Earle of 
Northumberland and Sir Charles Blunt were at dinner upon a 
time, the bullet of a demy-culverin brake thorow the middest 
of their cabben, touched their feet, and strooke downe two of 
the standers by, with many such accidents befalling the English 
shippes, which it were tedious to rehearse." 

It reflects little credit on the English government that the 
English fleet was so deficiently supplied with ammunition as to 
be unable to complete the destruction of the invaders. But 
enough was done to insure it. Many of the largest Spanish 
ships were sunk or captured in the action of this day. And at 
length the Spanish admiral, despairing of success, fled north- 
ward with a southerly wind, in the hope of rounding Scotland, 
and so returning to Spain without a further encounter with the 
English fleet. Lord Effingham left a squadron to continue the 
blockade of the Prince of Parma's armament; but that wise 
general soon withdrew his troops to more promising fields of 
action. Meanwhile the lord-admiral himself and Drake chased 
the vincible Armada, as it was now termed, for some distance 
northward ; and then, when it seemed to bend away from the 
Scotch coast towards Norway, it was thought best, in the words 
of Drake, " to leave them to those boisterous and uncouth north- 
ern seas." 

The sufferings and losses which the unhappy Spaniards sus- 
tained in their flight round Scotland and Ireland are well known. 



256 DEFEAT OF 

Of their whole Armada only fifty-three shattered vessels brought 
back their beaten and wasted crews to the Spanish coast which 
they had quitted in such pageantry and pride. 

Some passages from the writings of those who took part in 
the struggle have been already quoted; and the most spirited 
description of the defeat of the Armada which ever was 
penned may perhaps be taken from the letter which our brave 
vice-admiral Drake wrote in answer to some mandacious stories 
by which the Spaniards strove to hide their shame. Thus does 
he describe the scenes in which he played so important a part : * 

"They were not ashamed to publish, in sundry languages in 
print, great victories in words, which they pretended to have 
obtained against this realm, and spread the same in a most false 
sort over all parts of France, Italy, and elsewhere ; when, shortly 
afterwards, it was happily manifested in very deed to all nations, 
how their navy, which they termed invincible, consisting of one 
hundred and forty sail of ships, not only of their own kingdom, 
but strengthened with the greatest argosies, Portugal carracks, 
Florentines, and large hulks of other countries, were by thirty 
of her majesty's own ships of war, and a few of our own mer- 
chants, by the wise, valiant, and advantageous conduct of the 
Lord Charles Howard, high-admiral of England, beaten and 
shuffled together even from the Lizard in Cornwall, first to 
Portland, when they shamefully left Don Pedro de Valdez with 
his mighty ship ; from Portland to Calais, where they lost 
Hugh de Moncado, with the galleys of which he was captain ; 
and from Calais driven with squibs from their anchors, were 
chased out of the sight of England, round about Scotland and 
Ireland. Where, for the sympathy of their religion, hoping to 
find succour and assistance, a great part of them were crushed 
against the rocks, and those others that landed, being very 
many in number, were, notwithstanding, broken, slain, and 
taken ; and so sent from village to village, coupled in halters, 
to be shipped into England, where her majesty, of her princely 
and invincible disposition, disdaining to put them to death, and 
scorning either to retain or to entertain them, they were all 
sent back again to their countries, to witness and recount the 
worthy achievement of their invincible and dreadful navy. Of 
which the number of soldiers, the fearful burthen of their ships, 
the commanders' names of every squadron, with all others, 

* See Strype, and the notes to the "Life of Drake," \n the " Biographja, 
Britannia." 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 257 

their magazines of provisions were put in print, as an army 
and navy irresistible and disdaining prevention : with all which 
their great and terrible ostentation, they did not in all their 
sailing round about England so much as sink or take one ship, 
bark, pinnace, or cockboat of ours, or even burn so much as 
one sheep-cote on this land." 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH 
ARMADA, a.d. 1588; AND THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, a.d. 1704. 

a.d. 1594. Henry IV. of France conforms to the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, and ends the civil wars that had long desolated 
France. 

1598. Philip II. of Spain dies, leaving a ruined navy and an 
exhausted kingdom. 

1603. Death of Queen Elizabeth. The Scotch dynasty of the 
Stuarts succeeds to the throne of England. 

1619. Commencement of the Thirty Years' War in Germany. 

1624 to 1642. Cardinal Richelieu is minister of France. He 
breaks the power of the nobility, reduces the Huguenots to 
complete subjection, and, by aiding the Protestant German 
princes in the latter part of the Thirty Years' War, he humil- 
iates France's ancient rival, Austria. 

1630. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, marches into 
Germany to the assistance of the Protestants, who were nearly 
crushed by the Austrian armies. He gains several great vic- 
tories, and, after his death, Sweden, under his statesmen and 
generals, continues to take a leading part in the war. 

1640. Portugal throws off the Spanish yoke, and the House 
of Braganza begins to reign. 

1642. Commencement of the civil war in England between 
Charles I. and his parliament. 

1648. The Thirty Years' War in Germany ended by the 
treaty of Westphalia. 

1653. Oliver Cromwell lord-protector of England. 

1660. Restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne. 

1661. Louis XIV. takes the administration of affairs in 
France into his own hands. 

1667 to 1668. Louis XIV. makes war in Spain, and conquers 
a large part of the Spanish Netherlands. 

1672. Louis makes war upon Holland, and almost overpowers 
it. Charles II. of England is his pensioner, and England helps 
the French in their attacks upon Holland until 1674. Heroic 
resistance of the Dutch under the Prince of Orange. 



"O 



258 DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 

1674. Louis conquers Franche-Comte. 
1679. Peace of Nimeguen. 

1681. Louis invades and occupies Alsace. 

1682. Accession of Peter the Great to the throne of Russia. 
1685. Louis commences a merciless persecution of his Prot- 
estant subjects. 

1688. The glorious Revolution in England. Expulsion of 
James II. William of Orange is made King of England. James 
takes refuge at the French court, and Louis undertakes to restore 
him. General war in the west of Europe. 

1697. Treaty of Ryswick. Charles XII. becomes King of 
Sweden. 

1700. Charles II. of Spain dies, having bequeathed his do- 
minions to Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV.'s grandson. Defeat of 
the Russians at Narva, by Charles XII. 

1701. William III. forms a "Grand Alliance" oi Austria, the 
Empire, the United Province, England, and other powers, 
against France. 

1702. King William dies; but his successor, Queen Anne, 
adheres to the Grand Alliance, and war is proclaimed against 
France. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 259 



CHAPTER XT. 

THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, 1704. 

"The decisive blow struck at Blenheim resounded through every part of 
Europe : it at once destroyed the vast fabric of power which it had taken 
Louis XIV., aided by the talents of Turenne and the genius of Vauban, so 
long to construct. — Alison. 

Though more slowly moulded and less imposingly vast than 
the empire of Napoleon, the power which Louis XIV. had ac- 
quired and was acquiring at the commencement of the eigh- 
teenth century was almost equally menacing to the general 
liberties of Europe. If tested by the amount of permanent ag- 
grandizement which each procured for France, the ambition of 
the royal Bourbon was more successful than were the enter- 
prises of the imperial Corsican. All the provinces that Bona- 
parte conquered were rent again from France within twenty 
years from the date when the very earliest of them was ac- 
quired. France is not stronger by a single city or a single acre 
for all the devastating wars of the Consulate and the Empire. 
But she still possesses Franche-Comte, Alsace, and part of 
Flanders. She has still the extended boundaries which Louis 
XIV. gave her. And the royal Spanish marriages, a few years 
ago, proved clearly how enduring has been the political influ- 
ence which the arts and arms of France's " Grand Monarque " 
obtained for her southward of the Pyrenees. 

When Louis XIV. took the reins of government into his own 
hands, after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, there was a union 
of ability with opportunity such as France had not seen since 
the days of Charlemagne. Moreover, Louis's career was no 
brief one. For upwards of forty years, for a period nearly 
equal to the duration of Charlemagne's reign, Louis steadily 
followed an aggressive and a generally successful policy. He 
passed a long youth and manhood of triumph before the 
military genius of Marlborough made him acquainted with 
humiliation and defeat. The great Bourbon lived too long. 
He should not have outstayed our two English kings — one his 



2 GO BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

dependant, James II., the other his antagonist, William III. 
Had he died in the year within which they died, his reign 
would be cited as unequalled in the French annals for its pros- 
perity. But he lived on to see his armies beaten, his cities cap- 
tured, and his kingdom wasted by disastrous war. It is as if 
Charlemagne had survived to be defeated by the Northmen, 
and to witness the misery and shame that actually fell to the 
lot of his descendants. 

Still, Louis XIV. had forty years of success ; and from the 
permanence of their fruits we may judge what the results would 
have been if the last fifteen years of his reign had been equally 
fortunate. Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at 
this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling 
those of Alexander in extent, and those of the Romans in dur- 
ability. 

When Louis XIV. began to govern, he found all the materi- 
als for a strong government ready to his hand. Richelieu had 
completely tamed the turbulent spirit of the French nobility, 
and had subverted the " imperium in imperio " of the Hugue- 
nots. The faction of the Frondeurs in Mazarin's time had had 
the effect of making the Parisian parliament utterly hateful and 
contemptible in the eyes of the nation. The Assemblies of the 
States -General were obsolete. The royal authority alone re- 
mained. The king was the state. Louis knew his position. 
He fearlessly avowed it, and he fearlessly acted up to it.* 

Not only was his government a strong one, but the country 
which he governed was strong : strong in its geographical situa- 
tion, in the compactness of its territory, in the number and 
martial spirit of its inhabitants, and in their complete and un- 
divided nationality. Louis had neither a Hungary nor an Ire- 
land in his dominions. And it was not till late in his reign, 
when old age had made his bigotry more gloomy, and had given 
fanaticism the mastery over prudence, that his persecuting in- 
tolerance caused the civil war in the Cevennes. 

Like Napoleon in after-times, Louis XIV. saw clearly that the 
great wants of France were " ships, colonies, and commerce." 
But Louis did more than see these wants : by the aid of his 
great minister, Colbert, he supplied them. One of the surest 
proofs of the genius of Louis was his skill in finding out genius 

* " Quand Louis XIV. dit, ' L'etat, c'est moi :' il n'y eut dans cette parole 
ni enfiure, ni vanterie, mais la simple enonciation d'un fait." — Michelet, 
* l Histoire .Modeme," vol. ii., p. 106. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 261 

in others, and his promptness in calling it into action. Under 
him, Louvois organized, Turenne, Conde, Villars, and Berwick 
led the armies of France ; and Vauban fortified her frontiers. 
Throughout his reign, French diplomacy was marked by skil- 
fulness and activity, and also by comprehensive far-sightedness, 
such as the representatives of no other nation possessed. 
Guizot's testimony to the vigor that was displayed through 
every branch of Louis XIV.'s government, and to the extent to 
which France at present is indebted to him, is remarkable. 
He says that, " taking the public services of every kind, the 
finances, the departments of roads and public works, the 
military administration, and all the establishments which be- 
long to every branch of administration, there is not one that 
will not be found to have had its origin, its development, or its 
greatest perfection, under the reign of Louis XIV." * And he 
points out to us that " the government of Louis XIV. was the 
first that presented itself to the eyes of Europe as a power act- 
ing upon sure grounds, which had not to dispute its existence 
with inward enemies, but was at ease as to its territory and its 
people, and solely occupied with the task of administering gov- 
ernment, properly so called. All the European governments 
had been previously thrown into incessant wars, which deprived 
them of all security as well as of all leisure, or so harassed by 
internal parties or antagonists that their time was passed in 
fighting for existence. The government of Louis XIV. was the 
first to appear as a busy thriving administration of affairs, as a 
power at once definitive and progressive, which was not afraid 
to innovate, because it could reckon securely on the future. 
There have been in fact very few governments equally innovat- 
ing. Compare it with a government of the same nature, the 
unmixed monarchy of Philip II. in Spain ; it was more absolute 
than that of Louis XIV., and yet it was far less regular and 
tranquil. How did Philip II. succeed in establishing absolute 
power in Spain ? By stifling all activity in the country, op- 
posing himself to every species of amelioration, and rendering 
the state of Spain completely stagnant. The government of 
Louis XIV., on the contrary, exhibited alacrity for all sorts 
of innovations, and showed itself favorable to the progress 
of letters, arts, wealth, in short, of civilization. This was the 
veritable cause of its preponderance in Europe, which arose to 
such a pitch that it became the type of a government not only 

* "History of European Civilization," Lecture 13. 



262 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

to sovereigns, but also to nations, during the seventeenth cen- 
tury." 

While France was thus strong and united in herself, and ruled 
by a martial, an ambitious, and (with all his faults) an enlight- 
ened and high-spirited sovereign, what European power was 
there fit to cope with her, or keep her in check? 

"As to Germany, the ambitious projects of the German 
branch of Austria had been entirely defeated, the peace of the 
empire had been restored, and almost a new constitution formed, 
or an old revived, by the treaties of Westphalia ; nay, the empe- 
rial eagle was not only fallen, but her ivings ivere clipped." * 

As to Spain, the Spanish branch of the Austrian house had 
sunk equally low. Philip II. left his successors a ruined mon- 
archy. He left them something worse : he left them his example 
and his principles of government, founded in ambition, in pride, 
in ignorance, in bigotry, and all the pedantry of state.f 

It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that France, in the first 
war of Louis XI V., despised the opposition of both branches of 
the once predominant house of Austria. Indeed, in Germany 
the French king acquired allies among the princes of the em- 
pire against the emperor himself. He had a still stronger sup- 
port in Austria's misgovernment of her own subjects. The 
words of Bolingbroke on this are remarkable, and some of them 
sound as if written within the last three years. Bolingbroke 
says, " It was not merely the want of cordial co-operation among 
the princes of the empire that disabled the emperor from acting 
with vigor in the cause of his family then, nor that has rendered 
the house of Austria a dead weight upon all her allies ever since. 
Bigotry, and its inseparable companion, cruelty, as well as the 
tyranny and avarice of the court of Vienna, created in those 
days, and has maintained in ours, almost a perpetual diversion 
of the imperial arms from all effectual opposition to France. / 

* Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 378. Lord Bolingbroke's " Letters on the Use of 
History," and his " Sketch of the History and State of Europe," abound with 
remarks on Louis XIV. and his contemporaries, of which the substance is 
as sound as the style is beautiful. Unfortunately, like all his other works, 
they contain also a large proportion of sophistry and misrepresentation. 
The best test to use before we adopt any opinion or assertion of Boling- 
broke's is to consider whether in writing it he was thinking either of Sir 
Robert Walpole or of Revealed Religion. When either of these objects of 
his hatred was before his mind, he scrupled at no artifice or exaggeration 
that might serve the purpose of his malignity. On most other occasions he 
may be followed with advantage, as he always may be read with pleasure. 

f Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 378. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 263 

mean to speak of the troubles in Hungary. Whatever they 
became in their progress, they ivere caused originally by the usur- 
pations and persecutions of the emperor ; and when the Hun- 
garians were called rebels first, they were called so for no other 
reason than this, that they would not be slaves. The dominion 
of the emperor being less supportable than that of the Turks, 
this unhappy people opened a door to the latter to infest the 
empire, instead of making their country, what it had been be- 
fore, a barrier against the Ottoman power. France became a 
sure though secret ally of the Turks, as well as the Hungarians, 
and has found her account in it, by keeping the emperor in per- 
petual alarms on that side, while she has ravaged the empire and 
the Low Countries on the other.* 

If, after having seen the imbecility of Germany and Spain 
against the France of Louis XIV., we turn to the two only re- 
maining European powers of any importance at that time, to Eng- 
land and to Holland, we find the position of our own country as 
to European politics, from 1660 to 1688, most painful to con- 
template. From 1660 to 1688, "England, by the return of the 
Stuarts, was reduced to a nullity." The words are Michelet's,f 
and though severe, they are just. They are, in fact, not severe 
enough ; for when England, under her restored dynasty of the 
Stuarts, did take any part in European politics, her conduct, or 
rather her king's conduct, was almost invariably wicked and 
dishonorable. 

Bolingbroke rightly says that, previous to the revolution of 
1688, during the whole progress that Louis XIV. made in ob- 
taining such exorbitant power as gave him well-grounded hopes 
of acquiring at last to his family the Spanish monarchy, Eng- 
land had been either an idle spectator of what passed on the 
Continent, or a faint and uncertain ally against France, or a 
warm and sure ally on her side, or a partial mediator between 
her and the powers confederated together in their common de- 
fence. But though the court of England submitted to abet the 
usurpations of France, and the King of England stooped to be 
her pensioner, the crime was not national. On the contrary, 
the nation cried out loudly against it even whilst it was being 
committed.]; 

Holland alone, of all the European powers, opposed from the 
very beginning a steady and uniform resistance to the ambition 

* Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 397. f "Histoire Moderne," vol. ii., p. 106. 

\ Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 418. 



264 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

and power of the French ting. It was against Holland that the 
fiercest attacks of France were made, and though often appar- 
ently on the eve of complete success, they were always ulti- 
mately baffled by the stubborn bravery of the Dutch, and the 
heroism of their leader, William of Orange. When he became 
king of England, the power of this country was thrown decid- 
edly into the scale against France ; but though the contest was 
thus rendered less unequal, though William acted throughout 
" with invincible firmness, like a patriot and a hero," * France 
had the general superiority in every war and in every treaty ; 
and the commencement of the eighteenth century found the 
last league against her dissolved, all the forces of the confeder- 
ates against her dispersed, and many disbanded ; while France 
continued armed, with her veteran forces by sea and land in- 
creased, and held in readiness to act on all sides, whenever the 
opportunity should arise for seizing on the great prizes which, 
from the very beginning of his reign, had never been lost sight 
of by her king. 

This is not the place for any narrative of the first essay which 
Louis XIV. made of his power in the war of 1667 ; of his rapid 
conquest of Flanders and Franche-Comte ; of the treaty of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, which " was nothing more than a composition be- 
tween the bully and the bullied ;"f of his attack on Holland in 
1672 ; of the districts and barrier-towns of the Spanish Nether- 
lands which were secured to him by the treaty of Nimeguen in 
1678; of how, after this treaty, he "continued to vex both 
Spain and the empire, and to extend his conquests in the Low 
Countries and on the Rhine, both by the pen and the sword ; 
how he took Luxembourg by force, stole Strasburg, and bought 
Casal ;" of how the league of Augsburg was formed against 
him in 1686, and the election of William of Orange to the 
English throne in 1688 gave a new spirit to the opposition 
which France encountered; of the long and chequered war 
that followed, in which the French armies were generally vic- 
torious on the continent, though his fleet was beaten at La 
Hogue, and his dependant, James II., was defeated at the 
Boyne, or of the treaty of Ryswick, which left France in pos- 
session of Roussillon, Artois, and Strasburg, which gave Europe 
no security against her claims on the Spanish succession, and 
which Louis regarded as a mere truce, to gain breathing-time 
before a more decisive struggle. It must be borne in mind that 

* Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 404. f Ibid., p. 399. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 205 

the ambition of Louis in these wars was twofold. It had its 
immediate and its ulterior objects. Its immediate object was to 
conquer and annex to France the neighboring- provinces and 
towns that were most convenient for the increase of her strength ; 
but the ulterior object of Louis, from the time of his marriage 
to the Spanish Infanta in 1659, was to acquire for the house of 
Bourbon, the whole empire of Spain. A formal renunciation of 
all right to the Spanish succession had been made at the time 
of the marriage ; but such renunciations were never of any 
practical effect, and many casuists and jurists of the age even 
held them to be intrinsically void. As time passed on, and the 
prospect of Charles II. of Spain dying without lineal heirs be- 
came more and more certain, so did the claims of the house of 
Bourbon to the Spanish crown after his death become matters 
of urgent interest to French ambition on the one hand, and to 
the other powers of Europe on the other. At length the unhappy 
King of Spain died. By his will he appointed Philip, Duke of 
Anjou, one of Louis XIV.'s grandsons, to succeed him on the 
throne of Spain, and strictly forbade any partition of his domin- 
ions. Louis well knew that a general European war would 
follow if he accepted for his house the crown thus bequeathed. 
But he had been preparing for this crisis throughout his reign. 
He sent his grandson into Spain as King Philip V. of that 
country, addressing to him on his departure the memorable 
words, "There are no longer any Pyrenees." 

The empire, which now received the grandson of Louis as its 
king, comprised, besides Spain itself, the strongest part of the 
Netherlands, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, the principality of Milan, 
and other possessions in Italy, the Philippines and Manilla Isl- 
ands in Asia, and in the New World, besides California and 
Florida, the greatest part of Central and of Southern America. 
Philip was well received in Madrid, where he was crowned as 
King Philip V. in the beginning of lVOl. The distant por- 
tions of his empire sent in their adhesion ; and the house of 
Bourbon, either by its French or Spanish troops, now had oc- 
cupation both of the kingdom of Francis I. and of the fairest 
and amplest portion of the empire of the great rival of Francis, 
Charles V. 

Loud was the wrath of Austria, whose princes were the rival 
claimants of the Bourbons for the empire of Spain. The in- 
dignation of William III., though not equally loud, was far 
more deep and energetic. By his exertions a league against 
the house of Bourbon was formed between England, Holland, 



266 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

and the Austrian emperor, which was subsequently joined by the 
kings of Portugal and Prussia, by the Duke of Savoy, and by 
Denmark. Indeed, the alarm throughout Europe was general 
and urgent. It was clear that Louis aimed at consolidating 
France and the Spanish dominions into one preponderating 
empire. At the moment when Philip was departing to take 
possession of Spain, Louis had issued letters-patent in his favor 
to the effect of preserving his rights to the throne of France. 
And Louis had himself obtained possession of the important 
frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, with its numerous fortified 
cities, which were given up to his troops under pretence of 
securing them for the young King of Spain. Whether the 
formal union of the two crowns was likely to take place 
speedily or not, it was evident that the resources of the whole 
Spanish monarchy were now virtually at the French king's 
disposal. 

The peril that seemed to menace the empire, England, Hol- 
land, and the other independent powers, is well summed up by 
Alison : " Spain had threatened the liberties of Europe in the 
end of the sixteenth century, France had all but overthrown 
them in the close of the seventeenth. What hope was there of 
their being able to make head against them both, united under 
such a monarch as Louis XIV. ?" * 

Our knowledge of the decayed state into which the Spanish 
power had fallen ought not to make us regard their alarms 
as chimerical. Spain possessed enormous resources, and her 
strength was capable of being regenerated by a vigorous ruler. 
We should remember what Alberoni effected, even after the 
close of the War of Succession. By what that minister did in 
a few years, we may judge what Louis XIV. would have done 
in restoring the maritime and military power of that great 
country which nature has so largely gifted, and which man's 
misgovernment has so debased. 

The death of King William on the 8th of March, 1702, at 
first seemed likely to paralyze the league against France, for 
" notwithstanding the ill-success with which he made war gener- 
ally, he was looked upon as the sole centre of union that could 
keep together the great confederacy then forming ; and how 
much the French feared from his life had appeared a few years 
before, in the extravagant and indecent joy they expressed on a 
false report of his death. A short time showed how vain the 

♦"Military History of the Duke of Marlborough," p. 82. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 267 

fears of some and the hopes of others were." * Queen Anne, 
within three days after her accession, went down to the House 
of Lords, and there declared her resolution to support the meas- 
ures planned by her predecessor, who had been " the great sup- 
port, not only of these kingdoms, but of all Europe." Anne 
was married to Prince George of Denmark, and by her acces- 
sion to the English throne the confederacy against Louis ob- 
tained the aid of the troops of Denmark ; but Anne's strong 
attachment to one of her female friends led to far more im- 
portant advantages to the anti-Gallican confederacy than the 
acquisition of many armies, for it gave them Marlborough as 
their captain-general. 

There are few successful commanders on whom Fame has 
shone so unwillingly as upon John Churchill, Duke of Marl- 
borough, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire — victor of Blen- 
heim, Ramilies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet — captor of Liege, 
Bonn, Limburg, Landau, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Oudenarde, 
Ostend, Menin, Dendermonde, Ath, Lille, Tournay, Mons, Douay, 
Aire, Bethune, and Bouchain ; who never fought a battle that 
he did not win, and never besieged a place that he did not take. 
Marlborough's own private character is the cause of this. Mili- 
tary glory may, and too often does, dazzle both contemporaries 
and posterity, until the crimes as well as the vices of heroes are 
forgotten. But even a few stains of personal meanness will dim 
a soldier's reputation irreparably ; and Marlborough's faults were 
of a peculiarly base and mean order. Our feelings towards his- 
torical personages are in this respect like our feelings towards 
private acquaintances. There are actions of that shabby nature 
that, however much they may be outweighed by a man's good 
deeds on a general estimate of his character, we never can feel 
any cordial liking for the person who has been guilty of them. 
Thus, with respect to the Duke of Marlborough, it goes against 
our feelings to admire the man who owed his first advancement in 
life to the court favor which he and his family acquired through 
his sister becoming one of the mistresses of the Duke of York. 
It is repulsive to know that Marlborough laid the foundation of 
his wealth by being the paid lover of one of the fair and frail 
favorites of Charles II. His treachery and ingratitude to his 
patron and benefactor, James II., stand out in dark relief, even 
in that age of thankless perfidy. He was almost equally dis- 
loyal to his new master, King William ; and a more un-English 

* Bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 445. 



268 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

act cannot be recorded than Godolphin's and MaribofougVs 
betrayal to the French court in 1694 of the expedition then 
designed against Brest, an act of treason which caused some 
hundreds of English soldiers and sailors to be helplessly slaugh- 
tered on the beach in Camaret Bay. 

It is, however, only in his military career that we have now to 
consider him ; and there are very few generals, of either ancient 
or modern times, whose campaigns will bear a comparison with 
those of Marlborough, either for the masterly skill with which 
they were planned, or for the bold yet prudent energy with 
which each plan was carried into execution. Marlborough 
had served while young under Turenne, and had obtained the 
marked praise of that great tactician. It would be difficult, in- 
deed, to name a single quality which a general ought to have, 
and with which Marlborough was not eminently gifted. What 
principally attracted the notice of contemporaries was the im- 
perturbable evenness of his spirit. Voltaire * says of him : 

" He had, to a degree above all other generals of his time, 
that calm courage in the midst of tumult, that serenity of soul 
in danger, which the English call a cool head [" que les Anglais 
appellent cold head, tete froide"\ and it was perhaps this quality, 
the greatest gift of nature for command, which formerly gave 
the English so many advantages over the French in the plains 
of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt." 

King William's knowledge of Marlborough's high abilities, 
though he knew his faithlessness equally well, is said to have 
caused that sovereign in his last illness to recommend Marl- 
borough to his successor as the fittest person to command her 
armies ; but Marlborough's favor with the new queen by means 
of his wife was so high that he was certain of obtaining the 
highest employment ; and the war against Louis opened to him 
a glorious theatre for the display of those military talents which 
he had before only had an opportunity of exercising in a sub- 
ordinate character, and on far less conspicuous scenes. 

He was not only made captain-general of the English forces 
at home and abroad, but such was the authority of England in 
the council of the Grand Alliance, and Marlborough was so 
skilled in winning golden opinions from all whom he met with, 
that, on his reaching the Hague, he was received with trans- 
ports of joy by the Dutch, and it was agreed by the heads 
of that republic, and the minister of the emperor, that Marl- 

* " Siecle de Louis Quatorze." 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 269 

borough should have the chief command of all the allied ar- 
mies. 

It must indeed, in justice to Marlborough, be borne in mind 
that mere military skill was by no means all that was required 
of him in this arduous and invidious station. Had it not been 
for his unrivalled patience and sweetness of temper, and his 
marvellous ability in discerning the character of those with 
whom he had to act, his intuitive perception of those who were 
to be thoroughly trusted, and of those who were to be amused 
with the mere semblance of respect and confidence — had not 
Marlborough possessed and employed, while at the head of the 
allied armies, all the qualifications of a polished courtier and a 
great statesman, he never would have led the allied armies to 
the Danube. The Confederacy would not have held together 
for a single year. His great political adversary, Bolingbroke, 
does him ample justice here. Bolingbroke, after referring to 
the loss which King William's death seemed to inflict on the 
cause of the Allies, observes that, " By his death, the Duke of 
Marlborough was raised to the head of the army, and, indeed, 
of the Confederacy ; where he, a new, a private man, a subject, 
acquired by merit and by management a more deciding in- 
fluence than high birth, confirmed authority, and even the 
crown of Great Britain had given to King William. Not only 
all the parts of that vast machine, the Grand Alliance, were 
kept more compact and entire ; but a more rapid and vigorous 
motion was given to the whole ; and instead of languishing and 
disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of 
action. All those wherein he appeared, and many of those 
wherein he was not then an actor, but abettor, however, of their 
action, were crowned with the most triumphant success. 

" I take with pleasure this opportunity of doing justice to that 
great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired ; and 
whose memory, as the greatest general and as the greatest minister 
that our country, or perhaps any other, has produced, I honor."* 

War was formally declared by the Allies against France on 
the 4th of May, 1702. The principal scenes of its operation 
were, at first, Flanders, the Upper Rhine, and North Italy. 
Marlborough headed the allied troops in Flanders during the 
first two years of the war, and took some towns from the enemy, 
but nothing decisive occurred. Nor did any actions of impor- 
tance take place during this period between the rival armies in 

* bolingbroke, vol. ii., p. 44A 



270 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

Italy. But in the centre of that line from north to south, from 
the mouth of the Scheldt to the mouth of the Po, along which 
the war was carried on, the generals of Louis XIV. acquired 
advantages in 1703 which threatened one chief member of the 
Grand Alliance with utter destruction. France had obtained 
the important assistance of Bavaria as her confederate in the 
war. The elector of this powerful German state made himself 
master of the strong fortress of Ulm, and opened a communica- 
tion with the French armies on the Upper Rhine. By this 
junction the troops of Louis were enabled to assail the emperor 
in the very heart of Germany. In the autumn of the year 1703, 
the combined armies of the elector and French king completely 
defeated the Imperialists in Bavaria ; and in the following win- 
ter they made themselves masters of the important cities of 
Augsburg and Passau. Meanwhile the French army of the 
Upper Rhine and Moselle had beaten the allied armies opposed 
to them, and taken Treves and Landau. At the same time the 
discontents in Hungary with Austria again broke out into open 
insurrection, so as to distract the attention and complete the 
terror of the emperor and his council at Vienna. 

Louis XIV. ordered the next campaign to be commenced by 
his troops on a scale of grandeur and with a boldness of enter- 
prise such as even Napoleon's military schemes have seldom 
equalled. On the extreme left of the line of the war, in the 
Netherlands, the French armies were to act only on the defen- 
sive. The fortresses in the hands of the French there were so 
many and so strong that no serious impression seemed likely to 
be made by the Allies on the French frontier in that quarter 
during one campaign ; and that one campaign was to give France 
such triumphs elsewhere as would (it was hoped) determine the 
war. Large detachments were, therefore, to be made from the 
French force in Flanders, and they were to be led by Marshal 
Villeroy to the Moselle and Upper Rhine. The French army 
already in the neighborhood of those rivers was to march under 
Marshal Tallard through the Black Forest, and join the Elector 
of Bavaria and the French troops that were already with the 
elector under Marshal Marsin. Meanwhile the French army of 
Italy was to advance through the Tyrol into Austria, and the 
whole forces were to combine between the Danube and the Inn. 
A strong body of troops was to be despatched into Hungary, to 
assist and organize the insurgents in that kingdom ; and the 
French grand army of the Danube was then, in collected and 
irresistible might, to march upon Vienna, and dictate terms of 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 271 

peace to the emperor. High military genius was shown in the 
formation of this plan, but it was met and baffled by a genius 
higher still. 

Marlborough had watched, with the deepest anxiety, the prog- 
ress of the French arms on the Rhine and in Bavaria, and he 
saw the futility of carrying on a war of posts and sieges in 
Flanders while death-blows to the empire were being dealt on 
the Danube. He resolved, therefore, to let the war in Flanders 
languish for a year, while he moved with all the disposable 
forces that he could collect to the central scenes of decisive 
operations. Such a march was in itself difficult, but Marl- 
borough had, in the first instance, to overcome the still greater 
difficulty of obtaining the consent and cheerful co-operation of 
the Allies, especially of the Dutch, whose frontier it was pro- 
posed thus to deprive of the larger part of the force which 
had hitherto been its protection. Fortunately, among the many 
slothful, the many foolish, the many timid, and the not few 
treacherous rulers, statesmen, and generals of different nations 
with whom he had to deal, there were two men, eminent both 
in ability and integrity, who entered fully into Marlborough's 
projects, and who, from the stations which they occupied, were 
enabled materially to forward them. One of these was the 
Dutch statesman Heinsius, who had been the cordial supporter 
of King William, and who now, with equal zeal and good faith, 
supported Marlborough in the councils of the Allies ; the other 
was the celebrated general, Prince Eugene, whom the Austrian 
cabinet had recalled from the Italian frontier, to take the com- 
mand of one of the emperor's armies in Germany. To these 
two great men, and a few more, Marlborough communicated his 
plan freely and unreservedly ; but to the general councils of his 
allies he only disclosed part of his daring scheme. He proposed 
to the Dutch that he should march from Flanders to the Upper 
Rhine and Moselle with the British troops and part of the for- 
eign auxiliaries, and commence vigorous operations against the 
French armies in that quarter, while General Auverquerque, 
with the Dutch and the remainder of the auxiliaries, maintained 
a defensive war in the Netherlands. Having with difficulty 
obtained the consent of the Dutch to this portion of his project, 
he exercised the same diplomatic zeal, with the same success, 
in urging the King of Prussia, and other princes of the empire, 
to increase the number of the troops which they supplied, and to 
post them in places convenient for his own intended movements. 

Marlborough commenced his celebrated march on the 19th of 



272 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

May. The army which he was to lead had been assembled by 
his brother, General Churchill, at Bedburg, not far from Maes- 
tricht, on the Meuse ; it included sixteen thousand English 
troops, and consisted of fifty-one battalions of foot and ninety- 
two squadrons of horse. Marlborough was to collect and join 
with him on his march the troops of Prussia, Luneburg, and 
Hesse, quartered on the Rhine, and eleven Dutch battalions that 
were stationed at Rothweil.* He had only marched a single 
day, when the series of interruptions, complaints, and requi- 
sitions from the other leaders of the Allies began, to which he 
seemed doomed throughout his enterprise, and which would have 
caused its failure in the hands of any one not gifted with the 
firmness and the exquisite temper of Marlborough. One speci- 
men of these annoyances and Marlborough's mode of dealing 
with them may suffice. On his encamping at Kupen, on the 
20th, he received an express from Auverquerque pressing him 
to halt, because Villeroy, who commanded the French army in 
Flanders, had quitted the lines which he had been occupying, 
and crossed the Meuse at Namur with thirty-six battalions and 
forty-five squadrons, and was threatening the town of Huys. 
At the same time Marlborough received letters from the Mar- 
grave of Baden and Count Wratislaw, who commanded the 
Imperialist forces at Stollhoffen, near the left bank of the Rhine, 
stating that Tallard had made a movement as if intending to 
cross the Rhine, and urging him to hasten his march towards 
the lines of Stollhoffen. Marlborough was not diverted by 
these applications from the prosecution of his grand design. 
Conscious that the army of Villeroy would be too much reduced 
to undertake offensive operations, by the detachments which 
had already been made towards the Rhine, and those which 
must follow his own march, he halted only a day to quiet the 
alarms of Auverquerque. To satisfy also the margrave he or- 
dered the troops of Hompesch and Bulow to draw towards 
Philipsburg, though with private injunctions not to proceed be- 
yond a certain distance. He even exacted a promise to the 
same effect from Count Wratislaw, who at this juncture arrived 
at the camp to attend him during the whole campaign, j- 

Marlborough reached the Rhine at Coblentz, where he crossed 
that river, and then marched along its right bank to Braubach 
and Mainz. His march, though rapid, was admirably conducted, 
so as to save the troops from all unnecessary fatigue ; ample 

* Coxe's " Life of Marlborough." f Coxe, 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 273 

supplies of provisions were ready, and the most perfect disci- 
pline was maintained. By degrees Marlborough obtained more 
reinforcements from the Dutch and the other confederates, and 
he also was left more at liberty by them to follow his own 
course. Indeed, before even a blow was struck, his enterprise 
had paralyzed the enemy, and had materially relieved Austria 
from the pressure of the war. Villeroy, with his detachments 
from the French-Flemish army, was completely bewildered by 
Marlborough's movements ; and, unable to divine where it was 
that the English general meant to strike his blow, wasted away 
the early part of the summer between Flanders and the Moselle 
without effecting anything.* 

Marshal Tallard, who commanded forty-five thousand men at 
Strasburg, and who had been destined by Louis to march early 
in the year into Bavaria, thought that Marlborough's march 
along the Rhine was preliminary to an attack upon Alsace ; and 
the marshal therefore kept his forty-five thousand men back in 
order to support France in that quarter. Marlborough skilfully 
encouraged his apprehensions by causing a bridge to be con- 
structed across the Rhine at Philipsburg, and by making the 
Landgrave of Hesse advance his artillery at Manheim, as if for 
a siege of Landau. Meanwhile the Elector of Bavaria and 
Marshal Marsin, suspecting that Marlborough's design might be 
what it really proved to be, forbore to press upon the Austrians 
opposed to them, or to send troops into Hungary ; and they 
kept back so as to secure their communications with France. 
Thus, when Marlborough, at the beginning of June, left the 
Rhine and marched for the Danube, the numerous hostile armies 
were uncombined, and unable to check him. 

" With such skill and science had this enterprise been con- 
certed that at the very moment when it assumed a specific 
direction the enemy was no longer enabled to render it abortive. 
As the march was now to be bent towards the Danube, notice 
was given for the Prussians, Palatines, and Hessians, who were 
stationed on the Rhine, to order their march so as to join the 
main body in its progress. At the same time directions were 
sent to accelerate the advance of the Danish auxiliaries, who 
were marching from the Netherlands." f 

Crossing the river Neckar, Marlborough marched in a south- 

*" Marshal Villeroy," says Voltaire, "who had wished to follow Marl- 
borough on his first marches, suddenly lost sight of him altogether, and only 
learned where he really was on hearing of his victory at Donauwert." — 
Steele de Tjouis XIV. \ Coxe. 



274 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

eastern direction to Mundelshene, where he had his first personal 
interview with Prince Eugene, who was destined to be his col- 
league on so many glorious fields. Thence, though a difficult 
and dangerous country, Marlborough continued his march against 
the Bavarians, whom he encountered on the 2d of July, on the 
heights of the Schullenberg, near Donauwert. Marlborough 
stormed their intrenched camp, crossed the Danube, took 
several strong places in Bavaria, and made himself completely 
master of the elector's dominions, except the fortified cities of 
Munich and Augsburg. But the elector's army, though defeated 
at Donauwert, was still numerous and strong ; and at last Mar- 
shal Tallard, when thoroughly apprised of the real nature of 
Marlborough's movements, crossed the Rhine. He was suffered, 
through the supineness of the German general at Stollhoffen, to 
march without loss through the Black Forest, and united his 
powerful army at Biberach near Augsburg with that of the 
elector and the French troops under Marshal Marsin, who had 
previously been co-operating with the Bavarians. On the other 
hand, Marlborough recrossed the Danube, and on the 11th of 
August united his army with the Imperialist forces under Prince 
Eugene. The combined armies occupied a position near Hoch- 
stadt, a little higher up the left bank of the Danube than 
Donauwert, the scene of Marlborough's recent victory, and 
almost exactly on the ground where Marshal Villars and the 
Elector had defeated an Austrian army in the preceding year. 
The French marshals and the elector were now in position a 
little farther to the east, between Blenheim and Lutzingen, and 
with the little stream of the Nebel between them and the troops 
of Marlborough and Eugene. The Gallo-Bavarian army con- 
sisted of about sixty thousand men, and had sixty-one pieces 
of artillery. The army of the Allies was about fifty-six thou- 
sand strong, with fifty-two guns.* 

Although the French army of Italy had been unable to penetrate 
into Austria, and although the masterly strategy of Marlborough 
had hitherto warded off the destruction with which the cause of 
the Allies seemed menaced at the beginning of the campaign, 
the peril was still most serious. It was absolutely necessary 
for Marlborough to attack the enemy before Villeroy should 

* A short time before the War of the Succession the musket and bayonet 
had been made the arms of all the French infantry. It had formerly been 
usual to mingle pike-men with musketeers. The other European nations 
followed the example of France, and the weapons used at Blenheim were 
substantially the same as those still employed. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 275 

be roused into action. There was nothing to stop that general 
and his army from marching into Franconia, whence the Allies 
drew their principal supplies ; and, besides thus distressing them, 
he might, by marching on and joining his army to those of 
Tallard and the elector, form a mass which would overwhelm 
the force under Marlborough and Eugene. On the other hand, 
the chances of a battle seemed perilous, and the fatal conse- 
quences of a defeat were certain. The inferiority of the Allies 
in point of number was not very great, but still it was not to be 
disregarded ; and the advantage which the enemy seemed to 
have in the composition of their troops was striking. Tallard 
and Marsin had forty-five thousand Frenchmen under them, all 
veterans, and all trained to act together: the elector's own 
troops, also, were good soldiers. Marlborough, like Wellington 
at Waterloo, headed an army, of which the larger proportion 
consisted not of English, but of men of many different nations 
and many different languages. He was also obliged to be the 
assailant in the action, and thus to expose his troops to compara- 
tively heavy loss at the commencement of the battle, while the 
enemy would fight under the protection of the villages and lines 
which they were actively engaged in strengthening. The con- 
sequences of a defeat of the confederated army must have 
broken up the Grand Alliance, and realized the proudest hopes 
of the French king. Mr. Alison, in his admirable military 
history of the Duke of Marlborough, has truly stated the effects 
which would have taken place if France had been successful in 
the war. And when the position of the Confederates at the 
time when Blenheim was fought is remembered ; when we recol- 
lect the exhaustion of Austria, the menacing insurrection of Hun- 
gary, the feuds and jealousies of the German princes, the strength 
and activity of the Jacobite party in England, the imbecility of 
nearly all the Dutch statesmen of the time, and the weakness 
of Holland if deprived of her allies, we may adopt his words in 
speculating on what would have ensued if France had been 
victorious in the battle, and "if a power animated by the am- 
bition, guided by the fanaticism, and directed by the ability of 
that of Louis XIV. had gained the ascendency in Europe. 
Beyond all question, a universal despotic dominion would have 
been established over the bodies, a cruel spiritual thraldom over 
the minds of men. France and Spain united under Bourbon 
princes, and in a close family alliance — the empire of Char- 
lemagne with that of Charles V. ; the power which revoked the 
Edict of Nantes and perpetrated the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 



21 Q BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

with that which banished the Moriscoes and established the 
Inquisition, would have proved irresistible, and beyond example 
destructive to the best interests of mankind. 

" The Protestants might have been driven, like the Pagan 
heathens of old by the son of Pepin, beyond the Elbe ; the 
Stuart race, and with them Romish ascendency, might have been 
re-established in England ; the fire lighted by Latimer and 
Ridley might have been extinguished in blood; and the energy 
breathed by religious freedom into the Anglo-Saxon race might 
have expired. The destinies of the world would have been 
changed. Europe, instead of a variety of independent states, 
whose mutual hostility kept alive courage, while their national 
rivalry stimulated talent, would have sunk into the slumber 
attendant on universal dominion. The colonial empire of Eng- 
land would have withered away and perished, as that of Spain 
has done in the grasp of the Inquisition. The Anglo-Saxon race 
would have been arrested in its mission to overspread the earth 
and subdue it. The centralized despotism of the Roman empire 
would have been renewed on Continental Europe ; the chains 
of Romish tyranny, and with them the general infidelity of 
France before the Revolution, would have extinguished or per- 
verted thought in the British islands."* 

Marlborough's words at the council of war, when a battle was 
resolved on, are remarkable, and they deserve recording. We 
know them on the authority of his chaplain, Mr. (afterwards 
Bishop) Hare, who accompanied him throughout the campaign, 
and in whose journal the biographers of Marlborough have found 
many of their best materials. Marlborough's words to the offi- 
cers who remonstrated with him on the seeming temerity of at- 
tacking the enemy in their position were — " I know the danger, 
yet a battle is absolutely necessary ; and I rely on the bravery 
and discipline of the troops, which will make amends for our 
disadvantages." In the evening orders were issued for a general 
engagement, and received by the army with an alacrity which 
justified his confidence. 

The French and Bavarians were posted behind a little stream 
called the Nebel, which runs almost from north to south into the 
Danube immediately in front of the village of Blenheim. The 
Nebel flows along a little valley, and the French occupied the 
rising ground to the west of it. The village of Blenheim was 
the extreme right of their position, and the village of Lutzingen, 

* Alison's " Life of Marlborough," p. 248. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 



277 



about three miles north of Blenheim, formed their left. Beyond 
Lutzingen are the rugged high grounds of the Godd Berg, and 
Eich Berg, on the skirts of which some detachments were posted 
so as to secure the Gall o- Bavarian position from being turned 
on the left flank. The Danube protected their right flank ; and 



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PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 



it was only in front that they could be attacked. The villages 
of Blenheim and Lutzingen had been strongly palisaded and 
intrenched. Marshal Tallard, who held the chief command, 
took his station at Blenheim ; Prince Maximilian the Elector 
and Marshal Marsin commanded on the left. Tallard garrisoned 
Blenheim with twenty-six battalions of French infantry and twelve 
squadrons of French cavalry. Marsin and the elector had twenty- 
two battalions of infantry, and thirty-six squadrons of cavalry in 
front of the village of Lutzingen. The centre was occupied by 
fourteen battalions of infantry, including the celebrated Irish 
Brigade. These were posted in the little hamlet of Oberglau, 
which lies somewhat nearer to Lutzingen than to Blenheim. 
Eighty squadrons of cavalry and seven battalions of foot were 
ranged between Oberglau and Blenheim. Thus the French position 
was very strong at each extremity, but was comparatively weak in 
the centre. Tallard seems to have relied on the swampy state of the 
part of the valley that reaches from below Oberglau to Blen- 
heim for preventing any serious attack on this part of his line. 



278 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

The army of the Allies was formed into two great divisions ; 
the largest being commanded by the duke in person, and being 
destined to act against Tallard, while Prince Eugene led the 
other division, which consisted chiefly of cavalry, and was in- 
tended to oppose the enemy under Marsin and the elector. As 
they approached the enemy, Marlborough's troops formed the 
left and the centre, while Eugene's formed the right of the 
entire army. Early in the morning of the 13th of August, the 
Allies left their own camp and marched towards the enemy. A 
thick haze covered the ground, and it was not until the allied 
right and centre had advanced nearly within cannon-shot of the 
enemy that Tallard was aware of their approach. He made his 
preparations with what haste he could, and about eight o'clock 
a heavy fire of artillery was opened from the French right on 
the advancing left wing of the British. Marlborough ordered 
up some of his batteries to reply to it, and while the columns 
that were to form the allied left and centre deployed, and took 
up their proper stations in the line, a warm cannonade was kept 
up by the guns on both sides. 

The ground which Eugene's columns had to traverse was 
peculiarly difficult, especially for the passage of the artillery ; 
and it was nearly midday before he could get his troops into 
line opposite to Lutzingen. During this interval, Marlborough 
ordered divine service to be performed by the chaplains at the 
head of each regiment ; and then rode along the lines, and found 
both officers and men in the highest spirits, and waiting impa- 
tiently for the signal for the attack. At length an aide-de-camp 
galloped up from the right with the welcome news that Eugene 
was ready. Marlborough instantly sent Lord Cutts, with a strong 
brigade of infantry, to assault the village of Blenheim, while he 
himself led the main body down the eastward slope of the valley 
of the Nebel, and prepared to effect the passage of the stream. 

The assault on Blenheim, though bravely made, was repulsed 
with severe loss; and Marlborough, finding how strongly that 
village was garrisoned, desisted from any further attempts to 
carry it, and bent all his energies to breaking the enemy's line 
between Blenheim and Oberglau. Some temporary bridges had 
been prepared, and planks and fascines had been collected ; and 
by the aid of these, and a little stone bridge which crossed the 
Nebel, near a hamlet called Unterglau, that lay in the centre 
of the valley, Marlborough succeeded in getting several squad- 
rons across the Nebel, though it was divided into several branch- 
es, and the ground between them was soft, and in places little 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 279 

better than a mere marsh. But the French artillery was not 
idle. The cannon balls plunged incessantly among the advanc- 
ing squadrons of the Allies ; and bodies of French cavalry rode 
frequently down from the western ridge, to charge them before 
they had time to form on the firm ground. It was only by 
supporting his men by fresh troops, and by bringing up infantry, 
who checked the advance of the enemy's horse by their steady 
fire, that Marlborough was able to save his army in this quarter 
from a repulse, which, following the failure of the attack upon 
Blenheim, would probably have been fatal to the Allies. By 
degrees his cavalry struggled over the blood-stained streams ; 
the infantry were also now brought across, so as to keep in check 
the French troops who held Blenheim, and who, when no longer 
assailed in front, had begun to attack the Allies on their left 
with considerable effect. 

Marlborough had thus at last succeeded in drawing up the 
whole left wing of his army beyond the Nebel, and was about 
to press forward with it, when he was called away to another 
part of the field by a disaster that had befallen his centre. The 
Prince of Holstein-Beck had, with eleven Hanoverian battalions, 
passed the Nebel opposite to Oberglau, when he was charged and 
utterly routed by the Irish brigade which held that village. The 
Irish drove the Hanoverians back with heavy slaughter, broke 
completely through the line of the Allies, and nearly achieved a 
success as brilliant as that which the same brigade afterwards 
gained at Fontenoy. But at Blenheim their ardor in pursuit 
led them too far. Marlborough came up in person, and dashed in 
upon their exposed flank with some squadrons of British cavalry. 
The Irish reeled back, and as they strove to regain the height 
of Oberglau, their column was raked through and through by 
the fire of three battalions of the Allies, which Marlborough had 
summoned up from the reserve. Marlborough having re-estab- 
lished the order and communication of the Allies in this quarter, 
now, as he returned to his own left wing, sent to learn how his 
colleague fared against Marsin and the elector, and to inform 
Eugene of his own success. 

Eugene had hitherto not been equally fortunate. He had 
made three attacks on the enemy opposed to him, and had been 
thrice driven back. It was only by his own desperate personal 
exertions, and the remarkable steadiness of the regiments of 
Prussian infantry which were under him, that he was able to 
save his wing from being totally defeated. But it was on the 
southern part of the battle-field, on the ground which Marl- 



280 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

borough had won beyond the Nebel with such difficulty, that 
the crisis of the battle was to be decided. 

Like Hannibal, Marlborough relied principally on his cavalry 
for achieving his decisive successes, and it was by his cavalry 
that Blenheim, the greatest of his victories, was won. The bat- 
tle had lasted till five in the afternoon. Marlborough had now 
eight thousand horsemen drawn up in two lines, and in the most 
perfect order for a general attack on the enemy's line along 
the space between Blenheim and Oberglau. The infantry was 
drawn up in battalions in their rear, so as to support them if re- 
pulsed, and to keep in check the large masses of the French 
that still occupied the village of Blenheim. Tallard now inter- 
laced his squadrons of cavalry with battalions of infantry ; and 
Marlborough, by a corresponding movement, brought several 
regiments of infantry, and some pieces of artillery, to his front 
line, at intervals between the bodies of horse. A little after 
five, Marlborough commenced the decisive movement, and the 
allied cavalry, strengthened and supported by foot and guns, 
advanced slowly from the lower ground near the Nebel up the 
slope to where the French cavalry, ten thousand strong, awaited 
them. On riding over the summit of the acclivity, the Allies 
were received with so hot a fire from the French artillery and 
small arms that at first the cavalry recoiled, but without aban- 
doning the high ground. The guns and the infantry which 
they had brought with them maintained the contest with spirit 
and effect. The French fire seemed to slacken. Marlborough 
instantly ordered a charge along the line. The allied cavalry 
galloped forward at the enemy's squadrons, and the hearts of 
the French horsemen failed them. Discharging their carbines 
at an idle distance, they wheeled round and spurred from the 
field, leaving the nine infantry battalions of their comrades to 
be ridden down by the torrent of the allied cavalry. The bat- 
tle was now won. Tallard and Marsin, severed from each other, 
thought only of retreat. Tallard drew up the squadrons of 
horse which he had left, in a line extended towards Blenheim, 
and sent orders to the infantry in that village to leave and join 
him without delay. But long ere his orders could be obeyed 
the conquering squadrons of Marlborough had wheeled to the 
left and thundered down on the feeble army of the French mar- 
shal. Part of the force which Tallard had drawn up for this 
last effort were driven into the Danube ; part fled with their gen- 
eral to the village of Sonderheim, where they were soon sur- 
rounded by the victorious Allies, and compelled to surrender. 



BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 281 

Meanwhile, Eugene had renewed his attack upon the Gallo- 
Bavarian left, and Marsin, finding his colleague utterly routed, 
and his own right flank uncovered, prepared to retreat. He and 
the elector succeeded in withdrawing a considerable part of 
their troops in tolerable order to Dillingen ; but the large body 
of French who garrisoned Blenheim were left exposed to certain 
destruction. Marlborough speedily occupied all the outlets 
from the village with his victorious troops, and then, collecting 
his artillery round it, he commenced a cannonade that speedily 
would have destroyed Blenheim itself and all who were in it. 
After several gallant but unsuccessful attempts to cut their way 
through the Allies, the French in Blenheim were at length com- 
pelled to surrender at discretion ; and twenty-four battalions, 
and twelve squadrons, with all their officers, laid down their 
arms and became the captives of Marlborough. 

" Such," said Voltaire, " was the celebrated battle, which the 
French call the battle of Hochstet, the Germans Plentheim, and 
the English Blenheim. The conquerors had about five thousand 
killed, and eight thousand wounded, the greater part being on 
the side of Prince Eugene. The French army was almost en- 
tirely destroyed : of sixty thousand men, so long victorious, 
there never reassembled more than twenty thousand effective. 
About twelve thousand killed, fourteen thousand prisoners, all 
the cannon, a prodigious number of colors and standards, all the 
tents and equipages, the general of the army, and one thousand 
two hundred officers of mark, in the power of the conqueror, 
signalized that day !" 

Ulm, Landau, Treves, and Traerbach surrendered to the allies 
before the close of the year.- Bavaria submitted to the em- 
peror, and the Hungarians laid down their arms. Germany was 
completely delivered from France ; and the military ascendency 
of the arms of the Allies was completely established. Through- 
out the rest of the war Louis fought only in defence. Blenheim 
had dissipated forever his once proud visions of almost univer- 
sal conquest. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, 
1704, AND THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA, 1709. 

a.d. 1705. The Archduke Charles lands in Spain with a small 
English army under Lord Peterborough, who takes Barcelona. 

1706. Marlborough's victory at Ramilies. 

1707. The English army in Spain is defeated at the battle of 
Almanza. 

1708. Marlborough's victory at Oudenarde. 



282 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA, 1709. 

" Dread Pultowa's day, 

When fortune left the royal Swede, 
Around a slaughtered army lay, 

No more to combat and to bleed. 
The power and fortune of the war 
Had passed to the triumphant Czar." — Byron. 

Napoleon prophesied at St. Helena that all Europe would 
soon be either Cossack or Republican. Four years ago, the ful- 
filment of the last of these alternatives appeared most probable. 
But the democratic movements of 1848 were sternly repressed 
in 1849. The absolute authority of a single ruler, and the 
austere stillness of martial law, are now paramount in the capi- 
tals of the Continent, which lately owned no sovereignty save 
the will of the multitude, and where that which the democrat 
calls his sacred right of insurrection was so loudly asserted and 
so often fiercely enforced. Many causes have contributed to 
bring about this reaction, but the most effective and the most 
permanent have been Russian influence and Russian arms. Rus- 
sia is now the avowed and acknowledged champion of Monarchy 
against Democracy — of constituted authority, however ac- 
quired, against revolution and change, for whatever purpose de- 
sired ; of the imperial supremacy of strong states over their 
weaker neighbors against all claims for political independence, 
and all striving for separate nationality. She has crushed the 
heroic Hungarians ; and Austria, for whom nominally she 
crushed them, is now one of her dependants. Whether the 
rumors of her being about to engage in fresh enterprises be well 
or ill founded, it is certain that recent events must have fear- 
fully augmented the power of the Muscovite empire, which, even 
previously, had been the object of well-founded anxiety to all 
Western Europe. 

It was truly stated, twelve years ago, that " the acquisitions 
which Russia has made within the [then] last sixty-four years 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 283 

are equal in extent and importance to the whole empire she had 
in Europe before that time ; that the acquisitions she has made 
from Sweden are greater than what remains of that ancient king- 
dom ; that her acquisitions from Poland are as large as the 
whole Austrian empire ; that the territory she has wrested from 
Turkey in Europe is equal to the dominions of Prussia, exclu- 
sive of her Rhenish provinces ; and that her acquisitions from 
Turkey in Asia are equal in extent to all the smaller states of 
Germany, the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, Belgium, and Hol- 
land taken together ; that the country she has conquered from 
Persia is about the size of England ; that her acquisitions in 
Tartary have an area equal to Turkey in Europe, Greece, Italy, 
and Spain. In sixty-four years she has advanced her frontier 
eight hundred and fifty miles towards Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, 
Munich, and Paris ; she has approached four hundred and fifty 
miles nearer to Constantinople ; she has possessed herself of the 
capital of Poland, and has advanced to within a few miles of the 
capital of Sweden, from which, when Peter the Great mounted 
the throne, her frontier was distant three hundred miles. Since 
that time she has stretched herself forward about one thousand 
miles towards India, and the same distance towards the capital 
of Persia." * 

Such, at that period, had been the recent aggrandizement of 
Russia ; and the events of the last few years, by weakening and 
disuniting all her European neighbors, have immeasurably aug- 
mented the relative superiority of the Muscovite empire over all 
the other Continental powers. 

With a population exceeding sixty millions, all implicitly 
obeying the impulse of a single ruling mind ; with a territorial 
area of six millions and a half of square miles ; with a standing 
army eight hundred thousand strong; with powerful fleets on 
the Baltic and Black seas ; with a skilful host of diplomatic 
agents planted in every court and among every tribe ; with the 
confidence which unexpected success creates, and the sagacity 
which long experience fosters, Russia now grasps with an armed 
right hand the tangled thread of European politics, and issues 
her mandate as the arbitress of the movements of the age. Yet 
a century and a half have hardly elapsed since she was first rec- 
ognized as a member of the drama of modern European history 
— previously to the battle of Pultowa, Russia played no part. 
Charles V. and his great rival, our Elizabeth and her adversary, 

* " Progress of Russia in the East," p. 142. 



284 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

Philip of Spain, the Guises, Sully, Richelieu, Cromwell, De Witt, 
William of Orange, and the other leading spirits of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, thought no more about the Muscovite 
czar than we now think about the King of Timbuctoo. Even 
as late as 1735, Lord Bolingbroke, in his admirable " Letters on 
History," speaks of the history of the Muscovites as having no 
relation to the knowledge which a practical English statesman 
ought to acquire.* It may be doubted whether a cabinet coun- 
cil often takes place now in our Foreign Office without Russia 
being uppermost in every English statesman's thoughts. 

But though Russia remained thus long unheeded amid her 
snows, there was a northern power the influence of which was 
acknowledged in the principal European quarrels, and whose 
good-will was sedulously courted by many of the boldest chiefs 
and ablest councillors of the leading states. This was Sweden ; 
Sweden, on whose ruins Russia has risen, but whose ascen- 
dency over her semi-barbarous neighbors was complete until the 
fatal battle that now forms our subject. 

As early as 1542 France had sought the alliance of Sweden to 
aid her in her struggle against Charles V. And the name of 
Gustavus Adolphus is of itself sufficient to remind us that in the 
great contest for religious liberty, of which Germany was for 
thirty years the arena, it was Sweden that rescued the falling 
cause of Protestantism ; and it was Sweden that principally dic- 
tated the remodelling of the European state-system at the peace 
of Westphalia. 

From the proud pre-eminence in which the valor of the 
" Lion of the North," and of Torstenston, Bannier, Wrangel, 
and the other generals of Gustavus, guided by the wisdom of 
Oxenstiern, had placed Sweden, the defeat of Charles XII. at 
Pultowa hurled her down at once and forever. Her efforts dur- 
ing the wars of the French revolution to assume a leading part 
in European politics met with instant discomfiture, and almost 
provoked derision. But the Sweden whose sceptre was be- 
queathed to Christina, and whose alliance Cromwell valued so 
highly, was a different power from the Sweden of the present 
day. Finland, Ingria, Livonia, Esthonia, Carelia, and other dis- 
tricts east of the Baltic, then were Swedish provinces ; and the 
possession of Pomerania, Rugen, and Bremen made her an im- 
portant member of the Germanic empire. These territories are 

* " Bolingbroke's Works," vol. ii., p. 374. In the same page he observes 
how Sweden had often turned her arms southward with prodigious effect. 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 285 

now all reft from her ; and the most valuable of them form the 
staple of her victorious rival's strength. Could she resume 
them, could the Sweden of 1648 be reconstructed, we should 
have a first-class Scandinavian state in the North, well qualified 
to maintain the balance of power and check the progress of 
Russia ; whose power, indeed, never could have become formi- 
dable to Europe save by Sweden becoming weak. 

The decisive triumph of Russia over Sweden at Pultowa was 
therefore all-important to the world, on account of what it over- 
threw as well as for what it established ; and it is the more 
deeply interesting because it was not merely the crisis of a 
struggle between two states, but it was a trial of strength be- 
tween two great races of mankind. "We must bear in mind 
that while the Swedes, like the English, the Dutch, and others, 
belong to the Germanic race, the Russians are a Sclavonic peo- 
ple. Nations of Sclavonian origin have long occupied the 
greater part of Europe eastward of the Vistula, and the popu- 
lations also of Bohemia, Croatia, Servia, Dalmatia, and other 
important regions westward of that river are Sclavonic. In the 
long and varied conflicts between them and the Germanic nations 
that adjoin them, the Germanic race had, before Pultowa, al- 
most always maintained a superiority. With the single but im- 
portant exception of Poland, no Sclavonic state had made any 
considerable figure in history before the time when Peter the 
Great won his great victory over the Swedish king.* What 
Russia has done since that time we know and we feel. And 
some of the wisest and best men of our own age and nation, who 
have watched with deepest care the annals and the destinies of 
humanity, have believed that the Sclavonic element in the popu- 
lation of Europe has as yet only partially developed its powers ; 
that, while other races of mankind (our own, the Germanic, in- 
cluded) have exhausted their creative energies, and completed 
their allotted achievements, the Sclavonic race has yet a great 
career to run ; and that the narrative of Sclavonic ascendency is 
the remaining page that will conclude the history of the world.f 

Let it not be supposed that in thus regarding the primary 
triumph of Russia over Sweden as a victory of the Sclavonic 
over the Germanic race we are dealing with matters of mere 
ethnological pedantry, or with themes of mere speculative curi- 
osity. The fact that Russia is a Sclavonic empire is a fact of 

* The Hussite wars may, perhaps, entitle Bohemia to be distinguished, 
•J- See Arnold's " Lectures on Modern History," pp. 36 to 39, 



286 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

immense practical influence at the present moment. Half the 
inhabitants of the Austrian empire are Sclavonian. The popu- 
lation of the larger part of Turkey in Europe is of the same 
race. Silesia, Posen, and other parts of the Prussian dominions 
are principally Sclavonic. And during late years an enthusias- 
tic zeal for blending all Sclavonians into one great united Scla- 
vonic empire has been growing up in these countries, which, 
however we may deride its principle, is not the less real and 
active, and of which Russia, as the head and champion of the 
Sclavonic race, knows well how to take her advantage.* 

It is a singular fact that Russia owes her very name to a band 
of Swedish invaders who conquered her a thousand years ago. 
They were soon absorbed in the Sclavonic population, and every 
trace of the Swedish character had disappeared in Russia for 
many centuries before her invasion by Charles XII. She was 



* " The idea of Panslavism had a purely literary origin. It was started by 
Kollar, a Protestant clergyman of the Sclavonic congregation at Pesth, in 
Hungary, who wished to establish a national literature by circulating all 
works written in the various Sclavonic dialects through every country where 
any of them are spoken. He suggested that all the Sclavonic literati should 
become acquainted with the sister dialects, so that a Bohemian or other work 
might be read on the shores of the Adriatic as well as on the banks of the 
Volga, or any other place where a Sclavonic language was spoken ; by which 
means an extensive literature might be created, tending to advance knowl- 
edge in all Sclavonic countries ; and he supported his arguments by observ- 
ing that the dialects of ancient Greece differed from each other, like those of 
his own language, and yet that they formed only one Hellenic literature. 
The idea of an intellectual union of all those nations naturally led to that of 
a political one ; and the Sclavonians, seeing that their numbers amounted to 
about one third part of the whole population of Europe, and occupied more 
than half its territory, began to be sensible that they might claim for them- 
selves a position to which they had not hitherto aspired. 

" The opinion gained ground ; and the question now is, whether the Sclavo- 
nians can form a nation independent of Russia ; or whether they ought to rest 
satisfied in being part of one great race, with the most powerful member of it 
as their chief. The latter, indeed, is gaining ground among them ; and some 
Poles are disposed to attribute their sufferings to the arbitrary will of the 
czar, without extending the blame to the Russians themselves. These begin 
to think that if they cannot exist as Poles, the best thing to be done is to rest 
satisfied with a position in the Sclavonic empire ; and they hope that, when 
once they give up the idea of restoring their country, Russia may grant some 
concessions to their separate nationality. 

" The same idea has been put forward by writers in the Russian interest ; 
great efforts are making among other Sclavonic people to induce them to 
look upon Russia as their future head ; and she has already gained consider- 
able influence over the Sclavonic populations of Turkey." — Wilkinson's Vol- 
matia. 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 287 

long the victim and the slave of the Tartars ; and for many con- 
siderable periods of years the Poles held her in subjugation. 
Indeed, if we except the expeditions of some of the early Rus- 
sian chiefs against Byzantium, and the reign of Ivan Vasilovitch, 
the history of Russia before the time of Peter the Great is one 
long tale of suffering and degradation. 

But whatever may have been the amount of national injuries 
that she sustained from Swede, from Tartar, or from Pole in the 
ages of her weakness, she has certainly retaliated tenfold dur- 
ing the century and a half of her strength. Her rapid transition 
at the commencement of that period from being the prey of 
every conqueror to being the conqueror of all with whom she 
comes into contact, to being the oppressor instead of the op- 
pressed, is almost without a parallel in the history of nations. 
It was the work of a single ruler ; who, himself without educa- 
tion, promoted science and literature among barbaric millions; 
who gave them fleets, commerce, arts, and arms ; who, at Pul- 
towa, taught them to face and beat the previously invincible 
Swedes ; and who made stubborn valor and implicit subordina- 
tion from that time forth the distinguishing characteristics of 
the Russian soldiery, which had before his time been a mere 
disorderly and irresolute rabble. 

The career of Philip of Macedon resembles most nearly that 
of the great Muscovite czar ; but there is this important differ- 
ence, that Philip had, while young, received in Southern Greece 
the best education in all matters of peace and war that the 
ablest philosophers and generals of the age could bestow. Pe- 
ter was brought up among barbarians, and in barbaric ignorance. 
He strove to remedy this when a grown man, by leaving all the 
temptations to idleness and sensuality which his court offered 
and by seeking instruction abroad. He labored with his own 
hands as a common artisan in Holland and in England, that he 
might return and teach his subjects how ships, commerce, and 
civilization could be acquired. There is a degree of heroism 
here superior to anything that we know of in the Macedonian 
king. But Philip's consolidation of the long disunited Mace- 
donian empire ; his raising a people which he found the scorn 
of their civilized southern neighbors to be their dread ; his 
organization of a brave and well-disciplined army, instead of a 
disorderly militia; his creation of a maritime force, and his 
systematic skill in acquiring and improving seaports and ar- 
senals; his patient tenacity of purpose under reverses; his 
personal bravery, and even his proneness to coarse amusements 



288 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

and pleasures — all mark him out as the prototype of the im- 
perial founder of the Russian power. In justice, however, to 
the ancient hero, it ought to be added that we find in the his- 
tory of Philip no examples of that savage cruelty which deforms 
so grievously the character of Peter the Great. 

In considering the effects of the overthrow which the Swedish 
arms sustained at Pultowa, and in speculating on the probable 
consequences that would have followed if the invaders had been 
successful, we must not only bear in mind the wretched state in 
which Peter found Russia at his accession, compared with her 
present grandeur, but we must also keep in view the fact that, 
at the time when Pultowa was fought, his reforms were yet in- 
complete, and his new institutions immature. He had broken 
up the old Russia ; and the new Russia, which he ultimately 
created, was still in embryo. Had he been crushed at Pultowa, 
his mighty schemes would have been buried with him ; and (to 
use the words of Voltaire) " the most extensive empire in the 
world would have relapsed into the chaos from which it had 
been so lately taken." It is this fact that makes the repulse of 
Charles XII. the critical point in the fortunes of Russia. The 
danger which she incurred a century afterwards from her inva- 
sion by Napoleon was in reality far less than her peril when 
Charles attacked her ; though the French emperor, as a mili- 
tary genius, was infinitely superior to the Swedish king, and 
led a host against her compared with which the armies of 
Charles seem almost insignificant. But, as Fouche well warned 
his imperial master, when he vainly endeavored to dissuade him 
from his disastrous expedition against the empire of the czars, 
the difference between the Russia of 1812 and the Russia of 
1709 was greater than the disparity between the power of 
Charles and the might of Napoleon. " If that heroic king," 
said Fouche, " had not, like your imperial majesty, half Europe 
in arms to back him, neither had his opponent, the Czar Peter, 
400,000 soldiers and 50,000 Cossacks." The historians who 
describe the state of the Muscovite empire when revolutionary 
and imperial France encountered it narrate with truth and jus- 
tice how " at the epoch of the French Revolution this immense 
empire, comprehending nearly half of Europe and Asia within 
its dominions, inhabited by a patient and indomitable race, ever 
ready to exchange the luxury and adventure of the south for 
the hardships and monotony of the north, was daily becoming 
more formidable to the liberties of Europe. The Russian in- 
fantry had then long been celebrated for its immovable firm- 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 289 

ness. Her immense population, amounting then in Europe 
alone to nearly thirty-five millions, afforded an inexhaustible 
supply of men. Her soldiers, inured to heat and cold from 
their infancy, and actuated by a blind devotion to their czar, 
united the steady valor of the English to the impetuous energy 
of the French troops."* So, also, we read how the haughty 
aggressions of Bonaparte " went to excite a national feeling, 
from the banks of the Borysthenes to the wall of China, and 
to unite against him the wild and uncivilized inhabitants of an 
extended empire, possessed by a love to their religion, their 
government, and their country, and having a character of stern 
devotion, which he was incapable of estimating." \ But the 
Russia of 1709 had no such forces to oppose an assailant. Her 
whole population then was below sixteen millions ; and, what 
is far more important, this population had acquired neither mili- 
tary spirit nor strong nationality ; nor was it united in loyal 
attachment to its ruler. 

Peter had wisely abolished the old regular troops of the em- 
pire, the Strelitzes ; but the forces which he had raised in their 
stead on a new and foreign plan, and principally officered with 
foreigners, had, before the Swedish invasion, given no proof 
that they could be relied on. In numerous encounters with the 
Swedes, Peter's soldiery had run like sheep before inferior num- 
bers. Great discontent, also, had been excited among all classes 
of the community by the arbitrary changes which their great 
emperor introduced, many of which clashed with the most cher- 
ished national prejudices of his subjects. A career of victory 
and prosperity had not yet raised Peter above the reach of that 
disaffection, nor had superstitious obedience to the czar yet 
become the characteristic of the Muscovite mind. The victori- 
ous occupation of Moscow by Charles XII. would have quelled 
the Russian nation as effectually as had been the case when 
Batou Khan, and other ancient invaders, captured the capital 
of primitive Muscovy. How little such a triumph could effect 
towards subduing modern Russia, the fate of Napoleon demon- 
strated at once and forever. 

The character of Charles XII. has been a favorite theme with 
historians, moralists, philosophers, and poets. But it is his 
military conduct during the campaign in Russia that alone re- 
quires comment here. Napoleon, in the memoirs dictated by 
him at St. Helena, has given us a systematic criticism on that, 

* Alison. f Scott's "Life of Napoleon."' 



290 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

among other celebrated campaigns, his own Russian campaign 
included. He labors hard to prove that he himself observed 
all the true principles of offensive war; and probably his cen- 
sures of Charles's generalship were rather highly colored, for 
the sake of making his own military skill stand out in more 
favorable relief. Yet, after making all allowances, we must 
admit the force of Napoleon's strictures on Charles's tactics, 
and own that his judgment, though severe, is correct, when he 
pronounces that the Swedish king, unlike his great predecessor 
Gustavus, knew nothing of the art of war, and was nothing 
more than a brave and intrepid soldier. Such, however, was 
not the light in which Charles was regarded by his contempo- 
raries at the commencement of his Russian expedition. His 
numerous victories, his daring and resolute spirit, combined with 
the ancient renown of the Swedish arms, then filled all Europe 
with admiration and anxiety. As Johnson expresses it, his 
name was then one at which the world grew pale. Even Louis 
le Grand earnestly solicited his assistance ; and our own Marl- 
borough, then in the full career of his victories, was specially 
sent by the English court to the camp of Charles, to propitiate 
the hero of the North in favor of the cause of the Allies, and to 
prevent the Swedish sword from being flung into the scale in 
the French king's favor. But Charles at that time was solely 
bent on dethroning the sovereign of Russia, as he had already 
dethroned the sovereign of Poland, and all Europe fully be- 
lieved that he would entirely crush the czar, and dictate con- 
ditions of peace in the Kremlin.* Charles himself looked on 
success as a matter of certainty ; and the romantic extravagance 
of his views was continually increasing. " One year, he thought, 
would suffice for the conquest of Russia. The court of Rome 
was next to feel his vengeance, as the pope had dared to oppose 
the concession of religious liberty to the Silesian Protestants. 
No enterprise at that time appeared impossible to him. He 
had even despatched several officers privately into Asia and 
Egypt to take plans of the towns and examine into the strength 
and resources of those countries." f 

Napoleon thus epitomizes the earlier operations of Charles's 
invasion of Russia : 

" That prince set out from his camp at Aldstadt, near Leipsic, 

* Voltaire attests, from personal inspection of the letters of several public 
ministers to their respective courts, that such was the general expectation. 
\ Crighton's " Scandinavia." 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 291 

in September, 1707, at the head of 45,000 men, and traversed 
Poland ; 20,000 men, under Count Lewenhaupt, disembarked at 
Riga, and 15,000 were in Finland. He was therefore in a con- 
dition to have brought together 80,000 of the best troops in 
the world. He left 10,000 men at Warsaw to guard King Stan- 
islaus, and in January, 1708, arrived at Grodno, where he win- 
tered. In June, he crossed the forest of Minsk, and presented 
himself before Borisov ; forced the Russian army which occu- 
pied the left bank of the Beresina ; defeated 20,000 Russians 
who were strongly intrenched behind marshes ; passed the 
Borysthenes at Mohiloev, and vanquished a corps of 16,000 
Muscovites near Smolensko, on the 22d of September. He was 
now advanced to the confines of Lithuania, and was about to 
enter Russia Proper. The czar, alarmed at his approach, made 
him proposals of peace. Up to this time all his movements 
were conformable to rule, and his communications were well 
secured. He was master of Poland and Riga, and only ten 
days' march distant from Moscow ; and it is probable that he 
would have reached that capital, had he not quitted the high- 
road thither and directed his steps towards the Ukraine, in 
order to form a junction with Mazeppa, who brought him only 
6000 men. By this movement his line of operations, beginning 
at Sweden, exposed his flank to Russia for a distance of four 
hundred leagues, and he was unable to protect it, or to receive 
either reinforcements or assistance." 

Napoleon severely censures this neglect of one of the great 
rules of war. He points out that Charles had not organized his 
war like Hannibal, on the principle of relinquishing all commu- 
nications with home, keeping all his forces concentrated, and 
creating a base of operations in the conquered country. Such 
had been the bold system of the Carthaginian general ; but 
Charles acted on no such principle, inasmuch as he caused 
Lewenhaupt, one of his generals who commanded a considera- 
ble detachment, and escorted a most important convoy, to fol- 
low him at a distance of twelve days' march. By this disloca- 
tion of his forces he exposed Lewenhaupt to be overwhelmed 
separately by the full force of the enemy, and deprived the 
troops under his own command of the aid which that general's 
men and stores might have afforded at the very crisis of the 
campaign. 

The czar had collected an army of about a hundred thousand 
effective men ; and though the Swedes in the beginning of the 
invasion were successful in every encounter, the Russian troops 



292 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

were gradually acquiring discipline ; and Peter and his officers 
were learning generalship from their victors, as the Thebans of 
old learned it from the Spartans. When Lewenhaupt, in the 
October of 1708, was striving to join Charles in the Ukraine, 
the czar suddenly attacked him near the Borysthenes with an 
overwhelming force of fifty thousand Russians. Lewenhaupt 
fought bravely for three days, and succeeded in cutting his way 
through the enemy, with about four thousand of his men, to 
where Charles awaited him near the river Desna ; but upwards 
of eight thousand Swedes fell in these battles ; Lewenhaupt' s 
cannon and ammunition were abandoned ; and the whole of his 
important convoy of provisions, on which Charles and his half- 
starved troops were relying, fell into the enemy's hands. Charles 
was compelled to remain in the Ukraine during the winter ; but 
in the spring of 1709 he moved forward towards Moscow, and 
invested the fortified town of Pultowa, on the river Vorskla, a 
place where the czar had stored up large supplies of provisions 
and military stores, and which commanded the roads leading 
towards Moscow. The possession of this place would have 
given Charles the means of supplying all the wants of his suf- 
fering army, and would also have furnished him with a secure 
base of operations for his advance against the Muscovite capi- 
tal. The siege was therefore hotly pressed by the Swedes ; the 
garrison resisted obstinately ; and the czar, feeling the impor- 
tance of saving the town, advanced in June to its relief, at the 
head of an army from fifty to sixty thousand strong. 

Both sovereigns now prepared for the general action, which 
each perceived to be inevitable, and which each felt would be 
decisive of his own and of his country's destiny. The czar, by 
some masterly manoeuvres, crossed the Vorskla, and posted his 
army on the same side of that river with the besiegers, but a 
little higher up. The Vorskla falls into the Borysthenes about 
fifteen leagues below Pultowa, and the czar arranged his forces 
in two lines, stretching from one river towards the other; so 
that if the Swedes attacked him and were repulsed, they would 
be driven backwards into the acute angle formed by the two 
streams at their junction. He fortified these lines with several 
redoubts, lined with heavy artillery ; and his troops, both horse 
and foot, were in the best possible condition, and amply pro- 
vided with stores and ammunition. Charles's forces were about 
twenty-four thousand strong. But not more than half of these 
were Swedes ; so much had battle, famine, fatigue, and the 
deadly frosts of Russia thinned the gallant bands which the 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 293 

Swedish king and Lewcnhaupt had led to the Ukraine. The 
other twelve thousand men under Charles were Cossacks and 
Wallachians, who had joined him in that country. On hearing 
that the czar was about to attack him, he deemed that his dig- 
nity required that he himself should be the assailant ; and, lead- 
ing his army out of their intrenched lines before the town, he 
advanced with them against the Russian redoubts. 

He had been severely wounded in the foot in a skirmish a 
few days before ; and was borne in a litter along the ranks, into 
the thick of the fight. Notwithstanding the fearful disparity 
of numbers and disadvantage of position, the Swedes never 
showed their ancient valor more nobly than on that dreadful 
day. Nor do their Cossack and Wallachian allies seem to have 
been unworthy of fighting side by side with Charles's veterans. 
Two of the Russian redoubts were actually entered, and the 
Swedish infantry began to raise the cry of victory. But on the 
other side, neither general nor soldiers flinched in their duty. 
The Russian cannonade and musketry were kept up ; fresh 
masses of defenders were poured into the fortifications, and at 
length the exhausted remnants of the Swedish columns recoiled 
from the blood-stained redoubts. Then the czar led the infan- 
try and cavalry of his first line outside the works, drew them 
up steadily and skilfully, and the action was renewed along the 
whole fronts of the two armies on the open ground. Each sov- 
ereign exposed his life freely in the world-winning battle ; and 
on each side the troops fought obstinately and eagerly under 
their ruler's eye. It was not till two hours from the commence- 
ment of the action that, overpowered by numbers, the hitherto 
invincible Swedes gave way. All was then hopeless disorder 
and irreparable rout. Driven downward to where the rivers 
join, the fugitive Swedes surrendered to their victorious pur- 
suers, or perished in the waters of the Borysthenes. Only a 
few hundreds swam that river with their king and the Cossack 
Mazeppa, and escaped into the Turkish territory. Nearly ten 
thousand lay killed and wounded in the redoubts and on the 
field of battle. 

In the joy of his heart the czar exclaimed, when the strife 
was over, " that the son of the morning had fallen from heaven ; 
and that the foundations of St. Petersburg at length stood firm." 
Even on that battle-field, near the Ukraine, the Russian emper- 
or's first thoughts were of conquests and aggrandizement of the 
Baltic. The peace of Nystadt, which transferred the fairest 
provinces of Sweden to Russia, ratified the judgment of battle 



V 

294 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

which was pronounced at Pultowa. Attacks on Turkey and 
Persia by Russia commenced almost directly after that victory. 
And though the czar failed in his first attempts against the sultan, 
the successors of Peter have, one and all, carried on a uniformly 
aggressive and uniformly successful system of policy against Tur- 
key, and against every other state, Asiatic as well as European, 
which has had the misfortune of having Russia for a neighbor. 
Orators and authors who have discussed the progress of Rus- 
sia have often alluded to the similitude between the modern 
extension of the Muscovite empire and the extension of the Ro- 
man dominions in ancient times. But attention has scarcely 
been drawn to the closeness of the parallel between conquering 
Russia and conquering Rome, not only in the extent of con- 
quests, but in the means of effecting conquest. The history of 
Rome during the century and a half which followed the close of 
the second Punic war, and during which her largest acquisitions 
of territory were made, should be minutely compared with the 
history of Russia for the last one hundred and fifty years. The 
main points of similitude can only be indicated in these pages ; 
but they deserve the fullest consideration. Above all, the sixth 
chapter of Montesquieu's great treatise on Rome, the chapter 
" De la conduite que les Romains tinrent pour soumettre les peu- 
jiles" should be carefully studied by every one who watches the 
career and policy of Russia. The classic scholar will remember 
the statecraft of the Roman senate, which took care in every 
foreign war to appear in the character of a Protector. Thus 
Rome protected the ^Etolians and the Greek cities against Mac- 
edon ; she protected Bithynia and other small Asiatic states 
against the Syrian kings ; she protected Numidia against Car- 
thage ; and in numerous other instances assumed the same spe- 
cious character. But " woe to the people whose liberty de- 
pends on the continued forbearance of an over-mighty pro- 
tector."* Every state which Rome protected was ultimately 
subjugated and absorbed by her. And Russia has been the 
protector of Poland, the protector of the Crimea, the protector 
of Courland, the protector of Georgia, Immeritia, Mingrelia, the 
Tcherkessian and Caucasian tribes. She has first protected and 
then appropriated them all. She protects Moldavia and Wal- 
lachia. A few years ago she became the protector of Turkey 
from Mehemet Ali ; and since the summer of 1849 she has made 
herself the protector of Austria. 

* Malkin's " History of Greece." 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 295 

When the partisans of Russia speak of the disinterestedness 
with which she withdrew her protecting troops from Constanti- 
nople and from Hungary, let us here also mark the ominous 
exactness of the parallel between her and Rome. While the an- 
cient world yet contained a number of independent states, which 
might have made a formidable league against Rome if she had 
alarmed them by openly avowing her ambitious schemes, Rome's 
favorite policy was seeming disinterestedness and moderation. 
After her first war against Philip, after that against Antiochus, 
and many others, victorious Rome promptly withdrew her troops 
from the territories which they occupied. She affected to em- 
ploy her arms only for the good of others ; but, when the favor- 
able moment came, she always found a pretext for marching her 
legions back into each coveted district, and making it a Roman 
province. Fear, not moderation, is the only effective check on 
the ambition of such powers as Ancient Rome and Modern Rus- 
sia. The amount of that fear depends on the amount of timely 
vigilance and energy which other states choose to employ against 
the common enemy of their freedom and national independence. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA, 
1709, AND THE DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA, 1777. 

a.d. 1713. Treaty of Utrecht. Philip is left by it in posses- 
sion of the throne of Spain. But Naples, Milan, the Spanish 
territories on the Tuscan coast, the Spanish Netherlands, and 
some parts of the French Netherlands are given to Austria. 
France cedes to England Hudson's Bay and Straits, the island 
of St. Christopher, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland in America. 
Spain cedes to England Gibraltar and Minorca, which the Eng- 
lish had taken during the war. The King of Prussia and the 
Duke of Savoy both obtain considerable additions of territory 
to their dominions. 

1714. Death of Queen Anne. The House of Hanover begins 
to reign in England. A rebellion in favor of the Stuarts is put 
down. Death of Louis XIV. 

1718. Charles XII. killed at the siege of Frederickshall. 

1725. Death of Peter the Great of Russia. 

1740. Frederick II., King of Prussia, begins his reign. He 
attacks the Austrian dominions, and conquers Silesia. 

1742. War between France and England. 

1743. Victory of the English at Dettingen. 

1745. Victory of the French at Fontenoy. Rebellion in Scot- 



296 BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 

land in favor of the House of Stuart ; finally quelled by the bat- 
tle of Culloden in the next year. 

1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1750 to 1763. The Seven Years' War, during which Prussia 
makes an heroic resistance against the armies of Austria, Russia, 
and France. England, under the administration of the elder 
Pitt (afterwards Lord Chatham), takes a glorious part in the 
war in opposition to France and Spain. Wolfe wins the battle 
of Quebec, and the English conquer Canada, Cape Breton, and 
St. John. Clive begins his career of conquest in India. Cuba 
is taken by the English from Spain. 

1763. Treaty of Paris, which leaves the power of Prussia in- 
creased and its military reputation greatly exalted. 

" France, by the treaty of Paris, ceded to England Canada 
and the island of Cape Breton, with the islands and coasts of 
the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. The boundaries between 
the two nations in North America were fixed by a line drawn 
along the middle of the Mississippi, from its source to its mouth. 
All on the left or eastern bank of that river was given up to 
England, except the city of New Orleans, which was reserved to 
France ; as was also the liberty of the fisheries on a part of the 
coasts of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The isl- 
ands of St. Peter and Miquelon were given them as a shelter for 
their fishermen, but without permission to raise fortifications. 
The islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Desirade, 
and St. Lucia were surrendered to France ; while Grenada, the 
Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago were ceded to 
England. This latter power retained her conquests on the Sene- 
gal, and restored to France the island of Goree, on the coast of 
Africa. France was put in possession of the forts and factories 
which belonged to her in the East Indies, on the coasts of Coro- 
mandel, Orissa, Malabar, and Bengal, under the restriction of 
keeping up no military force in Bengal. 

" In Europe, France restored all the conquests she had made 
in Germany ; as also the island of Minorca. England gave up 
to her Belleisle, on the coast of Brittany ; while Dunkirk was 
kept in the same condition as had been determined by the peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle. The island of Cuba, with the Havannah, 
was restored to the King of Spain, who, on his part, ceded to 
England Florida, with Port Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola. 
The Kins: of Portugal was restored to the same state in which he 
had been before the war. The colony of St. Sacrament in Amer- 
ica, which the Spaniards had conquered, was given back to him. 



BATTLE OF PULTOWA. 29V 

" The peace of Paris, of which we have just now spoken, was 
the era of England's greatest prosperity. Her commerce and 
navigation extended over all parts of the globe, and were sup- 
ported by a naval force so much the more imposing, as it was no 
longer counterbalanced by the maritime power of France, which 
had been almost annihilated in the preceding war. The immense 
territories which that peace had secured her, both in Africa and 
America, opened up new channels for her industry : and what 
deserves specially to be remarked is, that she acquired at the 
same time vast and important possessions in the East Indies." * 

* Koch's " Revolutions of Europe." 



298 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 



CHAPTER XIII. 

VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS OVER BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA, 

A.D. 1777. 

" Westward the course of empire takes its way ; 
The first four acts already past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day: 
Time's noblest offspring is its last." 

Bishop Berkeley. 

"Even of those great conflicts, in which hundreds of thousands have been 
engaged and tens of thousands have fallen, none has been more fruitful of 
results than this surrender of thirty- five hundred fighting-men at Saratoga. 
It not merely changed the relations of England and the feelings of Europe 
towards these insurgent colonies, but it has modified, for all time to come, 
the connection between every colony and every parent state." — Lord Mahon. 

Op the four great powers that now principally rule the politi- 
cal destinies of the world, France and England are the only two 
whose influence can be dated back beyond the last century and 
a half. The third great power, Russia, was a feeble mass of 
barbarism before the epoch of Peter the Great ; and the very 
existence of the fourth great power, as an independent nation, 
commenced within the memory of living men. By the fourth 
great power of the world I mean the mighty commonwealth of 
the western continent, which now commands the admiration of 
mankind. That homage is sometimes reluctantly given, and ac- 
companied with suspicion and ill-will. But none can refuse it. 
All the physical essentials for national strength are undeniably 
to be found in the geographical position and amplitude of ter- 
ritory which the United States possess : in their almost inex- 
haustible tracts of fertile but hitherto untouched soil ; in their 
stately forests, in their mountain-chains and their rivers, their 
beds of coal, and stores of metallic wealth ; in their extensive 
seaboard along the waters of two oceans, and in their already 
numerous and rapidly increasing population. And when we 
examine the character of this population, no one can look on the 
fearless energy, the sturdy determination, the aptitude for local 
self-government, the versatile alacrity, and the unresting spirit 



AT SARATOGA. 299 

of enterprise which characterize the Anglo-Americans without 
feeling that he here beholds the true moral elements of progres- 
sive might. 

Three quarters of a century have not yet passed away since 
the United States ceased to be mere dependencies of England. 
And even if we date their origin from the period when the first 
permanent European settlements, out of which they grew, were 
made on the western coast of the North Atlantic, the increase 
of their strength is unparalleled, either in rapidity or extent. 

The ancient Roman boasted, with reason, of the growth of 
Rome from humble beginnings to the greatest magnitude which 
the world had then ever witnessed. But the citizen of the 
United States is still more justly entitled to claim this praise. 
In two centuries and a half his country has acquired ampler do- 
minion than the Roman gained in ten. And, even if we credit 
the legend of the band of shepherds and outlaws with which 
Romulus is said to have colonized the Seven Hills, we find not 
there so small a germ of future greatness as we find in the group 
of a hundred and five ill-chosen and disunited emigrants who 
founded Jamestown in 1607, or in the scanty band of the Pil- 
grim Fathers, who, a few years later, moored their bark on the 
wild and rock-bound coast of the wilderness that was to become 
New England. The power of the United States is emphatically 
the " Imperium quo neque ab exordio ullum fere minus, neque 
incrementis toto orbe amplius humana potest memoria recor- 
dari." * 

Nothing is more calculated to impress the mind with a sense 
of the rapidity with which the resources of the American repub- 
lic advance than the difficulty which the historical inquirer finds 
in ascertaining their precise amount. If he consults the most 
recent works, and those written by the ablest investigators of 
the subject, he finds in them admiring comments on the change 
which the last few years, before those books were written, had 
made ; but when he turns to apply the estimates in those books to 
the present moment, he finds them wholly inadequate. Before 
a book on the subject of the United States has lost its novelty, 
those states have outgrown the description which it contains. 
The celebrated work of the French statesman De Tocqueville 
appeared about fifteen years ago. In the passage which I am 
about to quote, it will be seen that he predicts the constant in- 
crease of the Anglo-American power, but he looks on the Rocky 

* Eutropius, lib. i. (exordium). 



300 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

Mountains as their extreme western limit for many years to 
come. He had evidently no expectation of himself seeing that 
power dominant along the Pacific as well as along the Atlantic 
coast. He says : * 

" The distance from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico ex- 
tends from the 47th to the 30th degree of latitude, a distance of 
more than 1200 miles, as the bird flies. The frontier of the 
United States winds along the whole of this immense line ; 
sometimes falling within its limits, but more frequently extend- 
ing far beyond it into the waste. It has been calculated that 
the Whites advance every year a mean distance of seventeen 
miles along the whole of this vast boundary. Obstacles, such 
as an unproductive district, a lake, or an Indian nation unex- 
pectedly encountered, are sometimes met with. The advancing 
column then halts for a while ; its two extremities fall back 
upon themselves, and as soon as they are reunited they proceed 
onward. This gradual and continuous progress of the Euro- 
pean race towards the Rocky Mountains has the solemnity of a 
Providential event : it is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly, 
and daily driven onward by the hand of God. 

" Within this first line of conquering settlers towns are built, 
and vast estates founded. In 1790 there were only a few thou- 
sand pioneers sprinkled along the valleys of the Mississippi; 
and at the present day these valleys contain as many inhabitants 
as were to be found in the whole Union in 1790. Their popu- 
lation amounts to nearly four millions. The city of Washington 
was founded in 1800, in the very centre of the Union ; but such 
are the changes which have taken place, that it now stands at 
one of the extremities ; and the delegates of the most remote 
Western States are already obliged to perform a journey as long 
as that from Vienna to Paris. 

" It must not, then, be imagined that the impulse of the Brit- 
ish race in the New World can be arrested. The dismember- 
ment of the Union, and the hostilities which might ensue ; the 
abolition of republican institutions, and the tyrannical govern- 
ment which might succeed it, may retard this impulse, but they 
cannot prevent it from ultimately fulfilling the destinies to which 
that race is reserved. No power upon earth can close upon the 

* The original French of these passages will be found in the chapter on 
" Quelles sont les chances de duree de 1'lJnion Americaine — Quels dangers la 
menacent," in the third volume of the first part of De Tocqueville, and in the 
conclusion of the first part. They are (with others) collected and translated 
by Mr. Alison in his " Essays," vol. iii., p. 374. 



AT SARATOGA. 301 

emigrants that fertile wilderness, which offers resources to all 
industry and a refuge from all want. Future events, of what- 
ever nature they may be, will not deprive the Americans of their 
climate or of their inland seas, or of their great rivers, or of their 
exuberant soil. Nor will bad laws, revolutions, and anarchy be 
able to obliterate that love of prosperity and that spirit of enter- 
prise which seem to be the distinctive characteristics of their 
race, or to extinguish that knowledge which guides them on their 
way. 

" Thus, in the midst of the uncertain future, one event at least 
is sure. At a period which may be said to be near (for we are 
speaking of the life of a nation), the Anglo-Americans will alone 
cover the immense space contained between the polar regions 
and the tropics, extending from the coast of the Atlantic to the 
shores of the Pacific Ocean ; the territory which will probably 
be occupied by the Anglo-Americans at some future time may 
be computed to equal three quarters of Europe in extent. The 
climate of the Union is, upon the whole, preferable to that of 
Europe, and its natural advantages are not less great ; it is there- 
fore evident that its population will at some future time be pro- 
portionate to our own. Europe, divided as it is between so 
many different nations, and torn as it has been by incessant 
wars and the barbarous manners of the Middle Ages, has not- 
withstanding attained a population of 410 inhabitants to the 
square league. What cause can prevent the United States from 
having as numerous a population in time ? 

" The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty 
millions of men will be living in North America, equal in con- 
dition, the progeny of one race, owing their origin to the same 
cause, and preserving the same civilization, the same language, 
the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and im- 
bued with the same opinions, propagated under the same forms. 
The rest is uncertain, but this is certain ; and it is a fact new to 
the world, a fact fraught with such portentous consequences as 
to baffle the efforts even of the imagination." 

Let us turn from the French statesman, writing in 1835, to an 
English statesman, who is justly regarded as the highest author- 
ity on all statistical subjects, and who described the United 
States only seven years ago. Macgregor * tells us, 

" The states which, on the ratification of independence, formed 
the American Republican Union, were thirteen, viz. : 

* Macgregor's " Commercial Statistics." 



302 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

" Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

"The foregoing thirteen states (the whole inhabited territory 
of which, with the exception of a few small settlements, was con- 
fined to the region extending between the Alleghany Mountains and 
the Atlantic) were those which existed at the period when they 
became an acknowledged separate and independent federal sov- 
ereign power. The thirteen stripes of the standard or flag of 
the United States continue to represent the original number. 
The stars have multiplied to twenty -six,* according as the num- 
ber of states have increased. 

" The territory of the thirteen original states of the Union, 
including Maine and Vermont, comprehended a superficies of 
371,124 English square miles; that of the whole United King- 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, 120,354; that of France, 
including Corsica, 214,910 ; that of the Austrian empire, includ- 
ing Hungary and all the imperial states, 257,540 square miles. 

" The present superficies of the twenty-six constitutional states 
of the Anglo-American Union, and the District of Columbia and 
territories of Florida, include 1,029,025 square miles; to which if 
we add the Northwest or Wisconsin territory, east of the Missis- 
sippi, and bounded by Lake Superior on the north and Michi- 
gan on the east, and occupying at least 100,000 square miles, 
and then add the great western region, not yet well-defined 
territories, but at the most limited calculation comprehending 
700,000 square miles — the whole unbroken in its vast length and 
breadth by foreign nations — it comprehends a portion of the 
earth's surface equal to 1,729,025 English, or 1,296,770 geo- 
graphical, square miles." 

We may add that the population of the States, when they de- 
clared their independence, was about two millions and a half ; 
it is now twenty-three millions. 

I have quoted Macgregor, not only on account of the clear 
and full view which he gives of the progress of America to the 
date when he wrote, but because his description may be con- 
trasted with what the United States have become even since his 
book appeared. Only three years after the time when Mac- 
gregor thus wrote, the American President truly stated : 

" Within less than four years the annexation of Texas to the 
Union has been consummated ; all conflicting title to the Ore- 

* Fresh stars have dawned since this was written. 



AT SARATOGA. 303 

gon territory, south of the 49th degree of north latitude, adjust- 
ed ; and New Mexico and Upper California have been acquired 
by treaty. The area of these several territories contains 1,193,061 
square miles, or 763,559,040 acres ; while the area of the re- 
maining twenty-nine states, and the territory not yet organized 
into states east of the Rocky Mountains, contains 2,059,513 
square miles, or 1,318,126,058 acres. These estimates show 
that the territories recently acquired, and over which our exclu- 
sive jurisdiction and dominion have been extended, constitute 
a country more than half as large as all that which was held by 
the United States before their acquisition. If Oregon be ex- 
cluded from the estimate, there will still remain within the lim- 
its of Texas, New Mexico, and California 851,598 square miles, 
or 545,012,720 acres; being an addition equal to more than one 
third of all the territory owned by the United States before 
their acquisition ; and, including Oregon, nearly as great an 
extent of territory as the whole of Europe, Russia only excepted. 
The Mississippi, so lately the frontier of our country, is now only 
its centre. With the addition of the late acquisitions, the United 
States are now estimated to be nearly as large as the whole of 
Europe. The extent of the sea-coast of Texas, on the Gulf of 
Mexico, is upward of 400 miles ; of the coast of Upper Cali- 
fornia, on the Pacific, of 970 miles ; and of Oregon, including 
the Straits of Fuca, of 650 miles ; making the whole extent of 
sea-coast on the Pacific 1620 miles, and the whole extent on 
both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico 2020 miles. The 
length of the coast on the Atlantic, from the northern limits of 
the United States, round the Capes of Florida to the Sabine, on 
the eastern boundary of Texas, is estimated to be 3100 miles, 
so that the addition of sea-coast, including Oregon, is very nearly 
two thirds as great as all we possessed before ; and, excluding 
Oregon, is an addition of 1370 miles — being nearly equal to 
one half of the extent of coast which we possessed before these 
acquisitions. We have now three great maritime fronts — on 
the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific ; making, in the 
whole, an extent of sea-coast exceeding 5000 miles. This is 
the extent of the sea-coast of the United States, not including 
bays, sounds, and small irregularities of the main shore, and of 
the sea islands. If these be included, the length of the shore 
line of coast, as estimated by the superintendent of the Coast 
Survey, in his report, would be 33,063 miles." 

The importance of the power of the United States being then 
firmly planted along the Pacific applies not only to the New 



304 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

World, but to the Old. Opposite to San Francisco, on the 
coast of that ocean, lie the wealthy but decrepit empires of China 
and Japan. Numerous groups of islets stud the larger part of 
the intervening sea, and form convenient stepping-stones for the 
progress of commerce or ambition. The intercourse of traffic 
between these ancient Asiatic monarchies and the young An- 
glo-American Republic must be rapid and extensive. Any 
attempt of the Chinese or Japanese rulers to check it, will only 
accelerate an armed collision. The American will either buy or 
force his way. Between such populations as that of China and 
Japan on the one side and that of the United States on the 
other — the former haughty, formal, and insolent ; the latter bold, 
intrusive, and unscrupulous — causes of quarrel must, sooner or 
later, arise. The results of such a quarrel cannot be doubted. 
America will scarcely imitate the forbearance shown by Eng- 
land at the end of our late war with the Celestial Empire ; and 
the conquest of China and Japan by the fleets and armies of the 
United States are events which many now living are likely to 
witness. Compared witli the magnitude of such changes in the 
dominion of the Old World, the certain ascendency of the Anglo- 
Americans over Central and Southern America seems a matter 
of secondary importance. Well may we repeat De Tocqueville's 
words, that the growing power of this commonwealth is, " Un 
fait entitlement nouveau dans le monde, et dont l'imagination 
elle-meme ne saurait saisir la portee." * 

An Englishman may look, and ought to look, on the growing 
grandeur of the Americans with no small degree of generous 
sympathy and satisfaction. They, like ourselves, are members 
of the great Anglo-Saxon nation " whose race and language are 
now overrunning the world from one end of it to the other." f 
And whatever differences of form of government may exist be- 
tween us and them — whatever reminiscences of the days when, 
though brethren, we strove together, may rankle in the minds 
of us, the defeated party — we should cherish the bonds of com- 
mon nationality that still exist between us. We should remem- 
ber, as the Athenians remembered of the Spartans at a season 
of jealousy and temptation, that our race is one, being of the 
same blood, speaking the same language, having an essential 

♦These remarks were written in May, 1851, and now, in May, 1852, a 
powerful squadron of American war-steamers has been sent to Japan, for 
the ostensible purpose of securing protection for the crews of American ves- 
sels shipwrecked on the Japanese coasts, but also evidently for important 
ulterior purposes. f Arnold. 



AT SARATOGA. 305 

resemblance in our institutions and usages, and worshipping in 
the temples of the same God.* All this may and should be 
borne in mind. And yet an Englishman can hardly watch the 
progress of America without the regretful thought that Amer- 
ica once was English, and that but for the folly of our rulers 
she might be English still. It is true that the commerce be- 
tween the two countries has largely and beneficially increased ; 
but this is no proof that the increase would not have been still 
greater had the States remained integral portions of the same 
great empire. By giving a fair and just participation in polit- 
ical rights, these, " the fairest possessions " of the British crown, 
might have been preserved to it. " This ancient and most noble 
monarchy "f would not have been dismembered; nor should 
we see that which ought to be the right arm of our strength, 
now menacing us in every political crisis, as the most formida- 
ble rival of our commercial and maritime ascendency. 

The war which rent away the North American colonies of 
England is, of all subjects in history, the most painful for an 
Englishman to dwell on. It was commenced and carried on by 
the British ministry in iniquity and folly, and it was concluded 
in disaster and shame. But the contemplation of it cannot be 
evaded by the historian, however much it may be abhorred. 
Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more im- 
portant influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the 
complete defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777 ; a defeat 
which rescued the revolted colonists from certain subjection ; 
and which, by inducing the courts of France and Spain to at- 
tack England in their behalf, insured the independence of the 
United States, and the formation of that transatlantic power 
which not only America, but both Europe and Asia, now see 
and feel. 

Still, in proceeding to describe this " decisive battle of the 
world," a very brief recapitulation of the earlier events of the 
war may be sufficient ; nor shall I linger unnecessarily on a pain- 
ful theme. 

The five northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont, usually classed 
together as the New England colonies, were the strongholds of 
the insurrection against the mother-country. The feeling of re- 

* 'Euv o/xatfiov re Kai ofioyXioaaov, Kai Qtuiv iSpvpaTa Tt koivu. Kai Ovaiat, 
{/Ota. re ofiuTpowa. — Herodotus, viii., 144. 
\ Lord Chatham. 



306 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

sistance was less vehement and general in the central settlement 
of New York ; and still less so in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
the other colonies of the south, although everywhere it was 
formidably active. Virginia should, perhaps, be particularized 
for the zeal which its leading men displayed in the American 
cause ; but it was among the descendants of the stern Puritans 
that the spirit of Cromwell and Vane breathed in all its fervor ; 
it was from the New-Englanders that the first armed opposition 
to the British crown had been offered ; and it was by them that 
the most stubborn determination to fight to the last, rather than 
waive a single right or privilege, had been displayed. In 1775 
they had succeeded in forcing the British troops to evacuate 
Boston; and the events of 1776 had made New York (which 
the royalists captured in that year) the principal basis of opera- 
tions for the armies of the mother-country. 

A glance at the map will show that the Hudson River, which 
falls into the Atlantic at New York, runs down from the north 
at the back of the New England States, forming an angle of 
about forty -five degrees with the line of the coast of the Atlan- 
tic, along which the New England states are situate. North- 
ward of the Hudson we see a small chain of lakes communicat- 
ing with the Canadian frontier. It is necessary to attend closely 
to these geographical points, in order to understand the plan of 
the operations which the English attempted in 1777, and which 
the battle of Saratoga defeated. 

The English had a considerable force in Canada ; and in 1776 
had completely repulsed an attack which the Americans had 
made upon that province. The British ministry resolved to 
avail themselves, in the next year, of the advantage which the 
occupation of Canada gave them, not merely for the purpose of 
defence, but for the purpose of striking a vigorous and crushing 
blow against the revolted colonies. With this view, the army 
in Canada was largely reinforced. Seven thousand veteran troops 
were sent out from England, with a corps of artillery abundant- 
ly supplied, and led by select and experienced officers. Large 
quantities of military stores were also furnished for the equip- 
ment of the Canadian volunteers, who were expected to join the 
expedition. It was intended that the force thus collected should 
march southward by the line of the lakes, and thence along the 
banks of the Hudson River. The British army in New York (or 
a large detachment of it) was to make a simultaneous movement 
northward up the line of the Hudson, and the two expeditions 
were to unite at Albany, a town on that river. By these opera- 



AT SARATOGA. 307 

tions all communication between the northern colonies and those 
of the centre and south would be cut off. An irresistible force 
would be concentrated, so as to crush all further opposition in 
New England ; and when this was done, it was believed that the 
other colonies would speedily submit. The Americans had no 
troops in the field that seemed able to baffle these movements. 
Their principal army, under Washington, was occupied in 
watching over Pennsylvania and the south. At any rate, it was 
believed that, in order to oppose the plan intended for the new 
campaign, the insurgents must risk a pitched battle, in which 
the superiority of the royalists in numbers, in discipline, and in 
equipment seemed to promise to the latter a crowning victory. 
Without question the plan was ably formed ; and had the suc- 
cess of the execution been equal to the ingenuity of the design, 
the re-conquest or submission of the thirteen United States 
must, in all human probability, have followed ; and the inde- 
pendence which they proclaimed in 1776 would have been ex- 
tinguished before it existed a second year. No European power 
had as yet come forward to aid America. It is true that Eng- 
land was generally regarded with jealousy and ill-will, and was 
thought to have acquired, at the treaty of Paris, a preponder- 
ance of dominion which was perilous to the balance of power; 
but though many were willing to wound, none had yet ventured 
to strike; and America, if defeated in 1777, would have been 
suffered to fall unaided.* 

* In Lord Albemarle's " Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham " is con- 
tained the following remarkable state paper, drawn up by King George III. 
himself, respecting the plan of Burgoyne's expedition. The original is in the 
king's own hand. 

" REMARKS ON THE CONDUCT OP THE WAR FROM CANADA. 

" The outlines of the plan seem to be on a proper foundation. The rank 
and file of the army now in Canada (including the 11th Regiment of British, 
M'Clean's corps, the Brunswicks and Hanover), amount to 10,527 ; add the 
eleven additional companies and four hundred Hanover Chasseurs, the total 
will be 11,443. 

11 As sickness and other contigencies must be expected, I should think not 
above 7000 effectives can be spared over Lake Champlain ; for it would be 
highly imprudent to run any risk in Canada. 

" The fixing the stations of those left in the provinces may not be quite 
right, though the plan proposed may be recommended. Indians must be em- 
ployed, and this measure must be avowedly directed, and Carleton must be in 
the strongest manner directed that the Apollo shall be ready by that day to 
receive Burgoyne. 

" The magazines must be formed with the greatest expedition at Crown 
Point. 



308 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

Burgoyne had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing ex- 
ploits in Portugal during the last war ; he was personally as 
brave an officer as ever headed British troops; he had consider- 
able skill as a tactician ; and his general intellectual abilities and 
acquirements were of a high order. He had several very able 
and experienced officers under him, among whom were Major- 
General Phillips and Brigadier-General Fraser. His regular 
troops amounted, exclusively of the corps of artillery, to about 
seven thousand two hundred men, rank and file. Nearly half 
of these were Germans. He had also an auxiliary force of from 
two to three thousand Canadians. He summoned the warriors 
of several tribes of the Red Indians near the western lakes to 
join his army. Much eloquence was poured forth, both in 
America and in England, in denouncing the use of these savage 
auxiliaries. Yet Burgoyne seems to have done no more than 
Montcalm, Wolfe, and other French, American, and English 
generals had done before him. But, in truth, the lawless fe- 
rocity of the Indians, their unskilfulness in regular action, and 
the utter impossibility of bringing them under any discipline, 
made their services of little or no value in times of difficulty ; 
while the indignation which their outrages inspired went far to 
rouse the whole population of the invaded districts into active 
hostilities against Burgoyne's force. 

Burgoyne assembled his troops and confederates near the 
river Bouquet, on the west side of Lake Champlain. He then, 
on the 21st of June, 1777, gave his red allies a war-feast, and 
harangued them on the necessity of abstaining from their usual 
cruel practices against unarmed people and prisoners. At the 
same time he published a pompous manifesto to the Americans, 

" If possible, possession must be taken of Lake George, and nothing but 
an absolute impossibility of succeeding in this can be an excuse for proceed- 
ing by South Bay and Skeenborough. 

" As Sir W. Howe does not think of acting from Rhode Island into the 
Massachusets, the force from Canada must join him in Albany. 

" The diversion on the Mohawk River ought at least to be strengthened by 
the addition of the four hundred Hanover Chasseurs. 

" The Ordnance ought to furnish a complete proportion of intrenching tools. 

" The provisions ought to be calculated for a third more than the effective 
soldiery, and the general ordered to avoid delivering these when the army 
can be subsisted by the country. Burgoyne certainly greatly undervalues the 
German recruits. 

" The idea of carrying the army by sea to Sir W. Howe would certainly re- 
quire the leaving a much larger part of it in Canada, as in that case the rebel 
army would divide that province from the immense one under Sir W. Howe. 
I greatly dislike this last idea." 



AT SARATOGA. 309 

in which he threatened the refractory with all the horrors of war, 
Indian as well as European. The army proceeded by water to 
Crown Point, a fortification which the Americans held at the 
northern extremity of the inlet by which the water from Lake 
George is conveyed to Lake Champlain. He landed here with- 
out opposition ; but the reduction of Ticonderoga, a fortifica- 
tion about twelve miles to the south of Crown Point, was a more 
serious matter, and was supposed to be the critical part of the 
expedition. Ticonderoga commanded the passage along the 
lakes, and was considered to be the key to the route which Bur- 
goyne wished to follow. The English had been repulsed in an 
attack on it in the war with the French in 1758 with severe loss. 
But Burgoyne now invested it with great skill ; and the Ameri- 
can general, St. Clair, who had only an ill-equipped army of 
about three thousand men, evacuated it on the 5th of July. It 
seems evident that a different course would have caused the de- 
struction or capture of his whole army; which, weak as it was, 
was the chief force then in the field for the protection of the 
New England States. When censured by some of his country- 
men for abandoning Ticonderoga, St. Clair truly replied " that 
he had lost a post, but saved a province." Burgoyne's troops 
pursued the retiring Americans, gained several advantages 
over them, and took a large part of their artillery and military 
stores. 

The loss of the British in these engagements was trifling. 
The army moved southward along Lake George to Skenes- 
borough ; and thence slowly, and with great difficulty, across a 
broken country, full of creeks and marshes, and clogged by the 
enemy with felled trees and other obstacles, to Fort Edward, on 
the Hudson River, the American troops continuing to retire be- 
fore them. 

Burgoyne reached the left bank of the Hudson River on the 
30th of July. Hitherto he had overcome every difficulty which 
the enemy and the nature of the country had placed in his way. 
His army was in excellent order and in the highest spirits ; and 
the peril of the expedition seemed over, when they were once 
on the bank of the river which was to be the channel of com- 
munication between them and the British army in the south. 
But their feelings, and those of the English nation in general 
when their successes were announced, may best be learned from 
a contemporary writer. Burke, in the " Annual Register " for 
1777, describes them thus: 

11 Such was the rapid torrent of success which swept everr- 



310 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

thing away before the northern army in its onset. It is not to 
be wondered at if both officers and private men were highly 
elated with their good fortune, and deemed that and their prow- 
ess to be irresistible ; if they regarded their enemy with the great- 
est contempt ; considered their own toils to be nearly at an end ; 
Albany to be already in their hands ; and the reduction of the 
northern provinces to be rather a matter of some time than an 
arduous task full of difficulty and danger. 

" At home, the joy and exultation was extreme ; not only at 
court, but with all those who hoped or wished the unqualified 
subjugation and unconditional submission of the colonies. The 
loss in reputation was greater to the Americans, and capable of 
more fatal consequences, than even that of ground, of posts, of 
artillery, or of men. All the contemptuous and most degrad- 
ing charges which had been made by their enemies, of their 
wanting the resolution and abilities of men, even in their de- 
fence of whatever was dear to them, were now repeated and 
believed. Those who still regarded them as men, and who had 
not yet lost all affection to them as brethren, who also retained 
hopes that a happy reconciliation upon constitutional principles, 
without sacrificing the dignity or the just authority of govern- 
ment on the one side, or a dereliction of the rights of freemen 
on the other, was not even now impossible, notwithstanding 
their favorable dispositions in general, could not help feeling 
upon this occasion that the Americans sunk not a little in 
their estimation. It was not difficult to diffuse an opinion that 
the war in effect was over; and that any further resistance 
could serve only to render the terms of their submission the 
worse. Such were some of the immediate effects of the loss 
of those grand keys of North America, Ticonderoga and the 
lakes." 

The astonishment and alarm which these events produced 
among the Americans were naturally great ; but in the midst of 
their disasters none of the colonists showed any disposition to 
submit. The local governments of the New England States, as 
well as the Congress, acted with vigor and firmness in their 
efforts to repel the enemy. General Gates was sent to take 
command of the army at Saratoga ; and Arnold, a favorite leader 
of the Americans, was despatched by Washington to act under 
him, with reinforcements of troops and guns from the main 
American army. Burgoyne's employment of the Indians now 
produced the worst possible effects. Though he labored hard 
to check the atrocities which they were accustomed to com- 



AT SARATOGA. 311 

mit, he could not prevent the occurrence of many barbarous 
outrages, repugnant both to the feelings of humanity and to the 
laws of civilized warfare. The American commanders took care 
that the reports of these excesses should be circulated far and 
wide, well knowing that they would make the stern New-Eng- 
landers not droop, but rage. Such was their effect ; and though, 
when each man looked upon his wife, his children, his sisters, 
or his aged parents, the thought of the merciless Indian " thirst- 
ing for the blood of man, woman, and child," of "the cannibal 
savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating the mangled 
victims of his barbarous battles," * might raise terror in the 
bravest breasts, this very terror produced a directly contrary 
effect to causing submission to the royal army. It was seen 
that the few friends of the royal cause, as well as its enemies, 
were liable to be the victims of the indiscriminate rage of the 
savages ;f and thus "the inhabitants of the open and frontier 
countries had no choice of acting : they had no means of se- 
curity left, but by abandoning their habitations and taking up 
arms. Every man saw the necessity of becoming a temporary 
soldier, not only for his own security, but for the protection and 
defence of those connections which are dearer than life itself." 
Thus an army was poured forth by the woods, mountains, and 
marshes, which in this part were thickly sown with plantations 
and villages. The Americans recalled their courage ; and when 
their regular army seemed to be entirely wasted, the spirit of 
the country produced a much greater and more formidable 
force. J 

While resolute recruits, accustomed to the use of firearms, 
and all partially trained by service in the provincial militias, 
were thus flocking to the standard of Gates and Arnold at Sara- 
toga, and while Burgoyne was engaged at Fort Edward in pro- 
viding the means for the further advance of his army through 
the intricate and hostile country that still lay before him, two 
events occurred, in each of which the British sustained loss 
and the Americans obtained advantage, the moral effects of 
which were even more important than the immediate result of 
the encounters. When Burgoyne left Canada, General St. Leger 
was detached from that province with a mixed force of about 
one thousand men, and some light field-pieces, across Lake 

*Lord Chatham's speech on the employment of Indians in the war. 
fSee in the "Annual Register" for 1777, p. 117, the "Narrative of the 
Murder of Miss McCrea, the daughter of an American loyalist." 
\ Burke. 



312 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

Ontario against Fort Stanwix, which the Americans held. After 
capturing this, he was to march along the Mohawk River to its 
confluence with the Hudson, between Saratoga and Albany, 
where his force and that of Burgoyne were to unite. But, after 
some successes, St. Leger was obliged to retreat, and to abandon 
his tents and large quantities of stores to the garrison. At the 
very time that General Burgoyne heard of this disaster, he ex- 
perienced one still more severe in the defeat of Colonel Baum 
with a large detachment of German troops at Bennington, whith- 
er Burgoyne had sent them for the purpose of capturing some 
magazines of provisions, of which the British army stood greatly 
in need. The Americans, augmented by continual accessions of 
strength, succeeded, after many attacks, in breaking this corps, 
which fled into the woods, and left its commander mortally 
wounded on the field ; they then marched against a force of 
five hundred grenadiers and light infantry, which was advanc- 
ing to Colonel Baum's assistance under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Breyman, who, after a gallant resistance, was obliged to retreat 
on the main army. The British loss in these two actions ex- 
ceeded six hundred men ; and a party of American loyalists 
on their way to join the army, having attached themselves to 
Colonel Baum's corps, were destroyed with it. 

Notwithstanding these reverses, which added greatly to the 
spirit and numbers of the American forces, Burgoyne deter- 
mined to advance. It was impossible any longer to keep up 
his communications with Canada by way of the lakes, so as to 
supply his army on his southward march ; but having by un- 
remitting exertions collected provisions for thirty days, lie 
crossed the Hudson by means of a bridge of rafts, and, march- 
ing a short distance along its western bank, he encamped on 
the 14th of September on the heights of Saratoga, about six- 
teen miles from Albany. The Americans had fallen back from 
Saratoga, and were now strongly posted near Stillwater, about 
half-way between Saratoga and Albany, and showed a deter- 
mination to recede no farther. 

Meanwhile Lord Howe, with the bulk of the British army 
that had lain at New York, had sailed away to the Delaware, 
and there commenced a campaign against Washington, in which 
the English general took Philadelphia, and gained other showy 
but unprofitable successes. But Sir Henry Clinton, a brave 
and skilful officer, was left with a considerable force at New 
York ; and he undertook the task of moving up the Hudson to 
co-operate with Burgoyne. Clinton was obliged, for this pur- 



AT SARATOGA. 313 

pose, to wait for reinforcements which had been promised from 
England, and these did not arrive till September. As soon as 
he received them, Clinton embarked about 3000 of his men on 
a flotilla, convoyed by some ships of war under Commander 
Hotham, and proceeded to force his way up the river ; but it 
was long before he was able to open any communication with 
Burgoyne. 

The country between Burgoyne's position at Saratoga and 
that of the Americans at Stillwater was rugged, and seamed 
with creeks and watercourses ; but after great labor in making 
bridges and temporary causeways, the British army moved for- 
ward. About four miles from Saratoga, on the afternoon of 
the 19th of September, a sharp encounter took place between 
part of the English right wing, under Burgoyne himself, and a 
strong body of the enemy, under Gates and Arnold. The con- 
flict lasted till sunset. The British remained masters of the 
field ; but the loss on each side was nearly equal (from five 
hundred to six hundred men) ; and the spirits of the Ameri- 
cans were greatly raised by having withstood the best regular 
troops of the English army. Burgoyne now halted again, and 
strengthened his position by field-works and redoubts ; and the 
Americans also improved their defences. The two armies re- 
mained nearly within cannon-shot of each other for a consider- 
able time, during which Burgoyne was anxiously looking for 
intelligence of the promised expedition from New York, which, 
according to the original plan, ought by this time to have been 
approaching Albany from the south. At last, a messenger frorr 
Clinton made his way with great difficulty to Burgoyne's camp, 
and brought the information that Clinton was on his way up the 
Hudson to attack the American forts which barred the passage 
up that river to Albany. Burgoyne, in reply, on the 30th of 
September, urged Clinton to attack the forts as speedily as 
possible, stating that the effect of such an attack, or even the 
semblance of it, would be to move the American army from its 
position before his own troops. By another messenger, who 
reached Clinton on the 5th of October, Burgoyne informed his 
brother general that he had lost his communications with 
Canada, but had provisions which would last him till the 20th. 
Burgoyne described himself as strongly posted, and stated that, 
though the Americans in front of him were strongly posted also, 
he made no doubt of being able to force them and making his 
way to Albany ; but that he doubted whether he could subsist 
there, as the country was drained of provisions. He wished 



314 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

Clinton to meet him there, and to keep open a communication 
with New York.* 

Burgoyne had overestimated his resources, and in the very 
beginning of October found difficulty and distress pressing him 
hard. 

The Indians and Canadians began to desert him ; while, on 
the other hand, Gates's army was continually reinforced by 
fresh bodies of the militia. An expeditionary force was 
detached by the Americans, which made a bold though un- 
successful attempt to retake Ticonderoga. And finding the 
number and spirit of the enemy to increase daily, and his own 
stores of provisions to diminish, Burgoyne determined on at- 
tacking the Americans in front of him, and by dislodging them 
from their position to gain the means of moving upon Albany, 
or at least of relieving his troops from the straitened position in 
which they were cooped up. 

Burgoyne's force was now reduced to less than 6000 men. 
The right of his camp was on some high ground a little to the 
west of the river ; thence his intrenchments extended along the 
lower ground to the bank of the Hudson, the line of their front 
being nearly at a right angle with the course of the stream. 
The lines were fortified with redoubts and field-works, and on a 
height on the flank of the extreme right a strong redoubt was 
reared, and intrenchments, in a horseshoe form, thrown up. 
The Hessians, under Colonel Breyman, were stationed here, 
forming a flank defence to Burgoyne's main army. The numer- 
ical force of the Americans was now greater than the British, 
even in regular troops, and the numbers of the militia and 
volunteers which had joined Gates and Arnold were greater 
still. 

General Lincoln, with 2000 New England troops, had reached 
the American camp on the 29th of September. Gates gave him 
the command of the right wing, and took in person the com- 
mand of the left wing, which was composed of two brigades 
under Generals Poor and Leonard, of Colonel Morgan's rifle 
corps, and part of the fresh New England militia. The whole 
of the American lines had been ably fortified under the direc- 
tion of the celebrated Polish general, Kosciusko, who was now 
serving as a volunteer in Gates's army. The right of the Arneri- 

* See the letters of General Clinton to General Harvey, published by Lord. 
Albemarle in his "Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham," vol. ii., p. 335 
et seq. 



AT SARATOGA. 



315 



can position — that is to say, the part of it nearest to the river — 
was too strong to be assailed with any prospect of success, and 
Burgoyne therefore determined to endeavor to force their left. 
For this purpose he formed a column of 1500 regular troops, 
with two twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders. 
He headed this in person, having Generals Phillips, Riedesel, 
and Fraser under him. The enemy's force immediately in front 
of his lines was so strong that he dared not weaken the troops 
who guarded them by detaching any more to strengthen his 
column of attack. 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OP SARATOGA. 



It was on the 7th of October that Burgoyne led his column 
forward; and on the preceding day, the 6th, Clinton had suc- 
cessfully executed a brilliant enterprise against the two Ameri- 
can forts which barred his progress up the Hudson. He had 
captured them both, with severe loss to the American forces op- 
posed to him ; he had destroyed the fleet which the Americans 
had been forming on the Hudson, under protection of their 



316 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

forts ; and the upward river was laid open to his squadron. He 
had also, with admirable skill and industry, collected in small 
vessels, such as could float within a few miles of Albany, pro- 
visions sufficient to supply Burgoyne's army for six months.* 
He was now only a hundred and fifty-six miles distant from 
Burgoyne ; and a detachment of 1700 men actually advanced 
within forty miles of Albany. Unfortunately, Burgoyne and 
Clinton were each ignorant of the other's movements ; but if 
Burgoyne had won his battle on the 7th, he must, on advancing, 
have soon learned the tidings of Clinton's success, and Clinton 
would have heard of his. A junction would soon have been 
made of the two victorious armies, and the great objects of the 
campaign might yet have been accomplished. All depended on 
the fortune of the column with which Burgoyne, on the event- 
ful 7th of October, 1777, advanced against the American posi- 
tion. There were brave men, both English and German, in its 
ranks ; and in particular it comprised one of the best bodies of 
grenadiers in the British service. 

Burgoyne pushed forward some bodies of irregular troops to 
distract the enemy's attention ; and led his column to within 
three quarters of a mile from the left of Gates's camp, and then 
deployed his men into line. The grenadiers under Major Ack- 
land, and the artillery under Major Williams, were drawn up on 
the left ; a corps of Germans under General Riedesel, and some 
British troops under General Phillips, were in the centre ; and 
the English light infantry, and the 24th Regiment under Lord 
Balcarres and General Fraser, were on the right. But Gates 
did not wait to be attacked ; and directly the British line was 
formed and began to advance, the American general, with ad- 
mirable skill, caused General Poor's brigade of New York and 
New Hampshire troops, and part of General Leonard's brigade, 
to make a sudden and vehement rush against its left, and at the 
same time sent Colonel Morgan, with his rifle corps and other 
troops, amounting to 1500, to turn the right of the English. 
The grenadiers under Ackland sustained the charge of superior 
numbers nobly. But Gates sent more Americans forward, and 
in a few minutes the action became general along the centre, 
so as to prevent the Germans from detaching any help to the 
grenadiers. Morgan, with his riflemen, was now pressing Lord 
Balcarres and General Fraser hard, and fresh masses of the 
enemy were observed advancing from their extreme left, with 

* See Clinton's letters in " Lord Albemarle," p. 337. 



AT SARATOGA. 317 

the evident intention of forcing the British right, and cutting 
off its retreat. The English light infantry and the 24th now fell 
back, and formed an oblique second line, which enabled them 
to baffle this manoeuvre, and also to succor their comrades in the 
left wing, the gallant grenadiers, who were overpowered by 
superior numbers, and, but for this aid, must have been cut to 
pieces. 

The contest now was fiercely maintained on both sides. The 
English cannon were repeatedly taken and retaken ; but when 
the grenadiers near them were forced back by the weight of 
superior numbers, one of the guns was permanently captured by 
the Americans, and turned upon the English. Major Williams 
and Major Ackland were both made prisoners, and in this part 
of the field the advantage of the Americans was decided. The 
British centre still held its ground ; but now it was that the 
American general Arnold appeared upon the scene, and did 
more for his countrymen than whole battalions could have 
effected. Arnold, when the decisive engagement of the 7th of 
October commenced, had been deprived of his command by 
Gates, in consequence of a quarrel between them about the ac- 
tion of the 19th of September. He had listened for a short 
time in the American camp to the thunder of the battle, in 
which he had no military right to take part, either as com- 
mander or as combatant. But his excited spirit could not long 
endure such a state of inaction. He called for his horse, a 
powerful brown charger, and, springing on it, galloped furiously 
to where the fight seemed to be the thickest. Gates saw him, 
and sent an aide-de-camp to recall him ; but Arnold spurred far 
in advance, and placed himself at the head of three regiments 
which had formerly been under him, and which welcomed their 
old commander with joyous cheers. He led them instantly upon 
the British centre ; and then, galloping along the American line, 
he issued orders for a renewed and a closer attack, which were 
obeyed with alacrity, Arnold himself setting the example of the 
most daring personal bravery, and charging more than once, 
sword in hand, into the English ranks. On the British side the 
officers did their duty nobly ; but General Fraser was the most 
eminent of them all, restoring order wherever the line began to 
waver, and infusing fresh courage into his men by voice and 
example. Mounted on an iron-gray charger, and dressed in the 
full uniform of a general officer, he was conspicuous to foes as 
well as to friends. The American colonel Morgan thought that 
the fate of the battle rested on this gallant man's life, and, call- 



318 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

ing several of his best marksmen round him, pointed Fraser out, 
and said : " That officer is General Fraser ; I admire him, but 
he must die. Our victory depends on it. Take your stations 
in that clump of bushes, and do your duty." Within five min- 
utes Fraser fell mortally wounded, and was carried to the British 
camp by two grenadiers. Just previously to his being struck 
by the fatal bullet, one rifle-ball had cut the crupper of his 
saddle, and another had passed through his horse's mane close 
behind the ears. His aide-de-camp had noticed this, and said : 
" It is evident that you are marked out for particular aim ; 
would it not be prudent for you to retire from this place ?" 
Fraser replied : " My duty forbids me to fly from danger ;" and 
the next moment he fell.* 

Burgoyne's whole force were now compelled to retreat towards 
their camp. The left and centre were in complete disorder, but 
the light infantry and the 24th checked the fury of the assail- 
ants, and the remains of the column with great difficulty effected 
their return to their camp, leaving six of their cannons in the 
possession of the enemy, and great numbers of killed and 
wounded on the field ; and especially a large proportion of the 
artillerymen, who had stood to their guns until shot down or 
bayoneted beside them by the advancing Americans. 

Burgoyne's column had been defeated, but the action was not 
yet over. The English had scarcely entered the camp, when the 
Americans, pursuing their success, assaulted it in several places 
with remarkable impetuosity, rushing in upon the intrenchments 
and redoubts through a severe fire of grape-shot and musketry. 
Arnold especially, who on this day appeared maddened with the 
thirst of combat and carnage, urged on the attack against a part 
of the intrenchments which was occupied by the light infantry 
under Lord Balcarres.f But the English received him with 
vigor and spirit. The struggle here was obstinate and san- 
guinary. At length, as it grew towards evening, Arnold, having 
forced all obstacles, entered the works with some of the most 
fearless of his followers. But in this critical moment of glory 
and danger, he received a painful wound in the same leg which 
had already been injured at the assault on Quebec. To his bit- 
ter regret he was obliged to be carried back. His party still 
continued the attack, but the English also continued their ob- 
stinate resistance, and at last night fell, and the assailants with- 
drew from this quarter of the British intrenchments. But in 

* Lossing. f Botta's " American War," book viii. 



AT SARATOGA. 319 

another part the attack had been more successful. A body of 
the Americans, under Colonel Brooke, forced their way in 
through a part of the horseshoe intrenchments on the extreme 
right, which was defended by the Hessian reserve under Colonel 
Breyman. The Germans resisted well, and Breyman died in de- 
fence of his post ; but the Americans made good the ground 
which they had won, and captured baggage, tents, artillery, and 
a store of ammunition, which they were greatly in need of. Thev 
had, by establishing themselves on this point, acquired the means 
of completely turning the right flank of the British, and gaining 
their rear. To prevent this calamity, Burgoyne effected during 
the night an entire change of position. With great skill he re- 
moved his whole army to some heights near the river, a little 
northward of the former camp, and he there drew up his men, 
expecting to be attacked on the following day. But Gates was 
resolved not to risk the certain triumph which his success had 
already secured for him. He harassed the English with skir- 
mishes, but attempted no regular attack. Meanwhile he de- 
tached bodies of troops on both sides of the Hudson to prevent 
the British from recrossing that river, and to bar their retreat. 
When night fell, it became absolutely necessary for Burgoyne to 
retire again, and, accordingly, the troops were marched through 
a stormy and rainy night towards Saratoga, abandoning their 
sick and wounded and the greater part of their baggage to the 
enemy. 

Before the rear-guard quitted the camp, the last sad honors 
were paid to the brave General Fraser, who expired on the day 
after the action. 

He had, almost with his last breath, expressed a wish to be 
buried in the redoubt which had formed the part of the British 
lines where he had been stationed, but which had now been 
abandoned by the English, and was within full range of the can- 
non which the advancing Americans were rapidly placing in 
position to bear upon Burgoyne's force. Burgoyne resolved, 
nevertheless, to comply with the dying wish of his comrade ; 
and the interment took place under circumstances the most 
affecting that have ever marked a soldier's funeral. Still more 
interesting is the narrative of Lady Ackland's passage from the 
British to the American camp, after the battle, to share the cap- 
tivity and alleviate the sufferings of her husband, who had been 
severely wounded, and left in the enemy's power. The Ameri- 
can historian Lossing has described both these touching epi- 
sodes of the campaign in a spirit that does honor to the writer 



320 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

as well as to his subject. Alter narrating the death of General 
Fraser on the 8th of October, he says that " it was just at sun- 
set, on that calm October evening, that the corpse of General 
Fraser was carried up the hill to the place of burial within the 
4 great redoubt.' It was attended only by the members of his 
military family and Mr. Brudenell, the chaplain; yet the eyes of 
hundreds of both armies followed the solemn procession, while 
the Americans, ignorant of its true character, kept up a constant 
cannonade upon the redoubt. The chaplain, unawed by the 
danger to which he was exposed, as the cannon-balls that struck 
the hill threw the loose soil over him, pronounced the impres- 
sive funeral service of the Church of England with an unfalter- 
ing voice. The growing darkness added solemnity to the scene. 
Suddenly the irregular firing ceased, and the solemn voice of a 
single cannon, at measured intervals, boomed along the valley, 
and awakened the responses of the hills. It was a minute-gun 
fired by the Americans in honor of the gallant dead. The mo- 
ment information was given that the gathering at the redoubt 
was a funeral company, fulfilling, amid imminent perils, the last- 
breathed wishes of the noble Fraser, orders were issued to with- 
hold the cannonade with balls, and to render military homage 
to the fallen brave. * * * 

" The case of Major Ackland and his heroic wife presents kin- 
dred features. He belonged to the corps of grenadiers, and was 
an accomplished soldier. His wife accompanied him to Canada 
in 1776 ; and during the whole campaign of that year, and until 
his return to England after the surrender of Burgoyne, in the 
autumn of 1777, endured all the hardships, dangers, and priva- 
tions of an active campaign in an enemy's country. At Cham- 
bly, on the Sorel, she attended him in illness, in a miserable hut ; 
and when he was wounded in the battle of Hubbardton, Ver- 
mont, she hastened to him at Skenesborough from Montreal, 
where she had been persuaded to remain, and resolved to follow 
the army thereafter. Just before crossing the Hudson, she and 
her husband came near losing their lives in consequence of 
their tent accidentally taking fire. 

" During the terrible engagement of the 7th of October, she 
heard all the tumult and dreadful thunder of the battle in which 
her husband was engaged ; and when, on the morning of the 8th, 
the British fell back in confusion to Wilbur's Basin, she, with 
the other women, was obliged to take refuge among the dead 
and dying ; for the tents were all struck, and hardly a shed was 
left standing. Her husband was wounded, and a prisoner in the 



AT SARATOGA. 321 

American camp. That gallant officer was shot through both 
legs when Poor and Learned's troops assaulted the grenadiers 
and artillery on the British left, on the afternoon of the 7th. 
Wilkinson, Gates's adjutant-general, while pursuing the flying 
enemy when they abandoned their battery, heard a feeble voice 
exclaim, ' Protect me, sir, against that boy.' He turned and saw 
a lad with a musket taking deliberate aim at a wounded British 
officer, Iving in a corner of a worm fence. Wilkinson ordered 
the boy to desist, and discovered the wounded man to be Major 
Ackland. He had him conveyed to the quarters of General 
Poor (now the residence of Mr. Neilson) on the heights, where 
every attention was paid to his wants. 

" When the intelligenoe that he was wounded and a prisoner 
reached his wife, she was greatly distressed, and, by the advice 
of her friend, Baron Riedesel, resolved to visit the American 
camp and implore the favor of a personal attendance upon her 
husband. On the 9th she sent a message to Burgoyne by 
Lord Petersham, his aide, asking permission to depart. ' Though 
I was ready to believe,' says Burgoyne, ' that patience and for- 
titude, in a supreme degree, were to be found, as well as every 
other virtue, under the most tender forms, I was astonished at 
this proposal. After so long an agitation of spirits, exhausted 
not only for want of rest, but absolutely want of food, drenched 
in rain for twelve hours together, that a woman should be capa- 
of such an undertaking as delivering herself to an enemy, prob- 
ably in the night, and uncertain of what hands she might fall 
into, appeared an effort above human nature. The assistance 
I was enabled to give was small indeed. I had not even a cup 
of wine to offer her. * * * All I could furnish to her was an 
open boat, and a few lines, written upon dirty wet paper, to 
General Gates, recommending her to his protection.' 

" The following is a copy of the note from Burgoyne to General 
Gates : ' Sir, — Lady Harriet Ackland, a lady of the first distinc- 
tion of family, rank, and personal virtues, is under such concern 
on account of Major Ackland, her husband, wounded and a pris- 
oner in your hands, that 1 cannot refuse her request to commit 
her to your protection. Whatever general impropriety there may 
be in persons in my situation and yours to solicit favors, I can- 
not see the uncommon perseverance in every female grace and 
exaltation of character of this lady, and her very hard fortune, 
without testifying that your attentions to her will lay me under 
obligations. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. Burgoyne.' 

" She set out in an open boat upon the Hudson, accompanied 



322 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

by Mr. Brudenell the chaplain, Sarah Pollard her waiting-maid, 
and her husband's valet, who had been severely wounded while 
searching for his master upon the battle-field. It was about 
sunset when they started, and a violent storm of rain and wind, 
which had been increasing since morning, rendered the voyage 
tedious and perilous in the extreme. It was long after dark 
when they reached the American outposts ; the sentinel heard 
their oars and hailed them. Lady Harriet returned the answer 
herself. The clear, silvery tones of a woman's voice amid the 
darkness filled the soldier on duty with superstitious fear, and 
he called a comrade to accompany him to the river-bank. The 
errand of the voyagers was made known, but the faithful guard, 
apprehensive of treachery, would not allow them to land until 
they sent for Major Dearborn. * * * They were invited by that 
officer to his quarters, where every attention was paid to them, 
and Lady Harriet was comforted by the joyful tidings that her 
husband was safe. In the morning she experienced parental ten- 
derness from General Gates, who sent her to her husband, at 
Poor's quarters, under a suitable escort. There she remained 
until he was removed to Albany." 

Burgoyne now took up his last position on the heights near 
Saratoga ; and, hemmed in by the enemy, who refused any en- 
counter, and baffled in all his attempts at finding a path of es- 
cape, he there lingered until famine compelled him to capitulate. 
The fortitude of the British army during this melancholy period 
has been justly eulogized by many native historians, but I pre- 
fer quoting the testimony of a foreign writer, as free from all 
possibility of partiality. Botta says : * 

" It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable con- 
dition to which the British army was now reduced. The troops 
were worn down by a series of toil, privation, sickness, and des- 
perate fighting. They were abandoned by the Indians and Cana- 
dians ; and the effective force of the whole army was now di- 
minished by repeated and heavy losses, which had principally 
fallen on the best soldiers and the most distinguished officers, 
from ten thousand combatants to less than one half that num- 
ber. Of this remnant little more than three thousand were 
English. 

" In these circumstances, and thus weakened, they were in- 
vested by an army of four times their own number, whose posi- 
tion extended three parts of a circle round them ; who refused 

* Botta, book viii. 



AT SARATOGA. 



323 



to fight them, as knowing their weakness, and who, from the 
nature of the ground, could not be attacked in any part. In this 
helpless condition, obliged to be constantly under arms while 




VICINITY OF SARATOGA. 



the enemy's cannon played on every part of their camp, and even 
the American rifle-balls whistled in many parts of the lines, the 
troops of Burgoyne retained their customary firmness, and, while 



324 VICTORY OF THE AMERICANS 

sinking under a hard necessity, they showed themselves worthy 
of a better fate. They could not be reproached with an action 
or a word which betrayed a want of temper or of fortitude." 

At length the 13th of October arrived, and as no prospect of 
assistance appeared, and the provisions were nearly exhausted, 
Burgoyne, by the unanimous advice of a council of war, sent a 
messenger to the American camp to treat of a convention. 

General Gates, in the first instance, demanded that the royal 
army should surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed 
that the British should ground their arms. Burgoyne replied, 
" This article is inadmissible in every extremity ; sooner than 
this army will consent to ground their arms in their encamp- 
ment, they will rush on the enemy, determined to take no quar- 
ter." After various messages, a convention for the surrender of 
the army was settled, which provided that " the troops under 
General Burgoyne were to march out of their camp with the 
honors of war, and the artillery of the intrenchments, to the 
verge of the river, where the arms and artillery were to be left. 
The arms to be piled by word of command from their own offi- 
cers. A free passage was to be granted to the army under Lieu- 
tenant General Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condition of not 
serving again in North America during the present contest." 

The articles of capitulation were settled on the 15th of Octo- 
ber ; and on that very evening a messenger arrived from Clinton 
with an account of his successes, and with the tidings that part 
of his force had penetrated as far as Esopus, within fifty miles 
of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too late. The public faith 
was pledged ; and the army was, indeed, too debilitated by 
fatigue and hunger to resist an attack if made ; and Gates cer- 
tainly would have made it, if the convention had been broken 
off. Accordingly, on the 17th, the convention of Saratoga was 
carried into effect. By this convention 5790 men surrendered 
themselves as prisoners. The sick and wounded left in the camp 
when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the num- 
bers of the British, German, and Canadian troops, who were 
killed, wounded, or taken, and who had deserted in the preced- 
ing part of the expedition, were reckoned to be 4689. 

The British sick and wounded who had fallen into the hands 
of the Americans after the battle of the 7th were treated with 
exemplary humanity ; and when the convention was executed, 
General Gates showed a noble delicacy of feeling which deserves 
the highest degree of honor. Every circumstance was avoided 
which could give the appearance of triumph. The American 



AT SARATOGA. 325 

troops remained within their lines until the British had piled 
their arms ; and when this was done, the vanquished officers and 
soldiers were received with friendly kindness by their victors, 
and their immediate wants were promptly and liberally supplied. 
Discussions and disputes afterwards arose as to some of the 
terms of the convention, and the American Congress refused 
for a long time to carry into effect the article which provided 
for the return of Burgoyne's men to Europe ; but no blame was 
imputable to General Gates or his army, who showed themselves 
to be generous as they had proved themselves to be brave. 

Gates, after the victory, immediately despatched Colonel Wil- 
kinson to carry the happy tidings to Congress. On being in- 
troduced into the hall, he said : " The whole British army has 
laid down its arms at Saratoga ; our own, full of vigor and 
courage, expect your order. It is for your wisdom to decide 
where the country may still have need for their service." Hon- 
ors and rewards were liberally voted by the Congress to their 
conquering general and his men; "and it would be difficult" 
(says the Italian historian) " to describe the transports of joy 
which the news of this event excited among the Americans. 
They began to flatter themselves with a still more happy future. 
No one any longer felt any doubt about their achieving their 
independence. All hoped, and with good reason, that a success 
of this importance would at length determine France, and the 
other European powers that waited for her example, to declare 
themselves in favor of America. There could no longer be any 
question respecting the future ; since there ivas no longer the risk 
of espousing the cause of a people too feeble to defend themselves." * 

The truth of this was soon displayed in the conduct of France. 
When the news arrived at Paris of the capture of Ticonderoga, 
and of the victorious march of Burgoyne towards Albany, events 
which seemed decisive in favor of the English, instructions had 
been immediately despatched to Nantes, and the other ports of 
the kingdom, that no American privateers should be suffered 
to enter them, except from indispensable necessity, as to repair 
their vessels, to obtain provisions, or to escape the perils of the 
sea. The American commissioners at Paris, in their disgust 
and despair, had almost broken off all negotiations with the 
French government ; and they even endeavored to open com- 
munications with the British ministry. But the British gov- 
ernment, elated with the first successes of Burgoyne, refused 

* Botta, book ix. 



326 VIC TOU Y OF THE AMERICANS AT SARATOGA. 

to listen to any overtures for accommodation. But when the 
news of Saratoga reached Paris, the whole scene was changed. 
Franklin and his brother commissioners found all their diffi- 
culties with the French government vanish. The time seemed 
to have arrived for the House of Bourbon to take a full revenge 
for all its humiliations and losses in previous wars. In Decem- 
ber a treaty was arranged, and formally signed in the February 
following, by which France acknowledged the Independent Unit- 
ed States of America. This was, of course, tantamount to a 
declaration of war with England. Spain soon followed France ; 
and before long Holland took the same course. Largely aided 
by French fleets and troops, the Americans vigorously main- 
tained the war against the armies which England, in spite of 
her European foes, continued to send across the Atlantic. But 
the struggle was too unequal to be maintained by this country 
for many years; and when the treaties of 1783 restored peace 
to the world, the independence of the United States was re- 
luctantly recognized by their ancient parent and recent enemy, 
England. 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE 
AT SARATOGA, 1111, AND THE BATTLE OF VALMY, 1792. 

a.d. 1781. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis and the British army 
to Washington. 

1782. Rodney's victory over the Spanish fleet. Unsuccess- 
ful siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards and French. 

1783. End of the American war. 

1788. The States -General are convened in France: begin- 
ning of the Revolution. 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 327 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BATTLE OF VALMY. 

44 Purpurei metuunt tyranni 
Injurioso ne pede proruas 
Stantem columnara ; neu populus f requens 
Ad arma cessantes ad arma 
Concitet, imperiumque frangat." 

Horatius, Od. i., 35. 

44 A little fire is quickly trodden out, 
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench." 

Shakespeare. 

A few miles distant from the little town of St. Menehouid, 
in the northeast of France, are the village and hill of Valmy ; 
and near the crest of that hill a simple monument points out 
the burial-place of the heart of a general of the French repub- 
lic and a marshal of the French empire. 

The elder Kellermann (father of the distinguished officer of 
that name whose cavalry charge decided the battle of Marengo) 
held high commands in the French armies throughout the wars 
of the Convention, the Directory, the Consulate, and the Em- 
pire. He survived those wars, and the empire itself, dying in ex- 
treme old age in 1820. The last wish of the veteran on his death- 
bed was that his heart should be deposited in the battle-field of 
Valmy, there to repose among the remains of his old companions 
in arms who had fallen at his side on that spot twenty-eight 
years before, on the memorable day when they won the primal vic- 
tory of revolutionary France, and prevented the armies of Bruns- 
wick and the emigrant bands of Conde from marching on defence- 
less Paris and destroying the immature democracy in its cradle. 

The Duke of Valmy (for Kellermann, when made one of Na- 
poleon's military peers in 1802, took his title from this same 
battle-field) had participated, during his long and active career, 
in the gaining of many a victory far more immediately dazzling 
than the one the remembrance of which he thus cherished. 
He had been present at many a scene of carnage, where blood 
flowed in deluges, compared with which the libations of slaugh- 



328 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

ter poured out at Valmy would have seemed scant and insignifi- 
cant. But he rightly estimated the paramount importance of 
the battle with which he thus wished his appellation while liv- 
ing, and his memory after his death, to be identified. The suc- 
cessful resistance which the new Carmagnole levies, and the 
disorganized relics of the old monarchy's army, then opposed 
to the combined hosts and chosen leaders of Prussia, Austria, 
and the French refugee noblesse, determined at once and for- 
ever the belligerent character of the revolution. The raw arti- 
sans and tradesmen, the clumsy burghers, the base mechanics 
and low peasant churls, as it had been the fashion to term the 
middle and lower classes in France, found that they could face 
cannon-balls, pull triggers, and cross bayonets without having 
been drilled into military machines, and without being officered 
by scions of noble houses. They awoke to the consciousness 
of their own instinctive soldiership. They at once acquired 
confidence in themselves and in each other ; and that confidence 
soon grew into a spirit of unbounded audacity and ambition. 
" From the cannonade of Valmy may be dated the commence- 
ment of that career of victory which carried their armies to 
Vienna and the Kremlin."* 

One of the gravest reflections that arise from the contempla- 
tion of the civil restlessness and military enthusiasm which the 
close of the last century saw nationalized in France is the con- 
sideration that these disturbing influences have become per- 
petual. No settled system of government that shall endure 
from generation to generation, that shall be proof against cor- 
ruption and popular violence, seems capable of taking root 
among the French. And every revolutionary movement in Paris 
thrills throughout the rest of the world. Even the successes 
which the powers allied against France gained in 1814 and 
1815, important as they were, could not annul the effects of 
the preceding twenty-three years of general convulsion and war. 

In 1830, the dynasty which foreign bayonets had imposed on 
France was shaken off ; and men trembled at the expected out- 
break of French anarchy and the dreaded inroads of French 
ambition. They " looked forward with harassing anxiety to a 
period of destruction similar to that which the Roman world 
experienced about the middle of the third century of our era."f 

* Alison. 

f See Niebuhr's preface to the second volume of the " History of Rome," 
written in October, 1830. 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 329 

Louis Philippe cajoled revolution, and then strove with seeming 
success to stifle it. But in spite of Fieschi laws, in spite of 
the dazzle of Algerian razzias and Pyrenees-effacing marriages, 
in spite of hundreds of armed forts and hundreds of thousands 
of coercing troops, Revolution lived, and struggled to get free. 
The old Titan spirit heaved restlessly beneath " the monarchy 
based on republican institutions." At last, four years ago, the 
whole fabric of kingcraft was at once rent and scattered to the 
winds by the uprising of the Parisian democracy ; and insur- 
rections, barricades, and dethronements, the downfall of coro- 
nets and crowns, the armed collisions of parties, systems, and 
populations, became the commonplaces of recent European 
history. 

France now calls herself a republic. She first assumed that 
title on the 20th of September, 1792, on the very day on which 
the battle of Valmy was fought and won. To that battle the 
democratic spirit which in 1848, as well as in 1792, proclaimed 
the republic in Paris, owed its preservation, and it is thence 
that the imperishable activity of its principles may be dated. 

Far different seemed the prospects of democracy in Europe 
on the eve of that battle ; and far different would have been 
the present position and influence of the French nation if 
Brunswick's columns had charged with more boldness, or the 
lines of Dumouriez resisted with less firmness. When France, 
in 1792, declared war with the great powers of Europe, she was 
far from possessing that splendid military organization which 
the experience of a few revolutionary campaigns taught her to 
assume, and which she has never abandoned. The army of the 
old monarchy had, during the latter part of the reign of Louis 
XV., sunk into gradual decay, both in numerical force and in 
efficiency of equipment and spirit. The laurels gained by the 
auxiliary regiments which Louis XVI. sent to the American 
war did but little to restore the general tone of the army. The 
insubordination and license which the revolt of the French 
guards, and the participation of other troops in many of the 
first excesses of the Revolution, introduced among the soldiery 
were soon rapidly disseminated through all the ranks. Under 
the Legislative Assembly every complaint of the soldier against 
his officer, however frivolous or ill-founded, was listened to with 
eagerness and investigated with partiality, on the principles of 
liberty and equality. Discipline accordingly became more and 
more relaxed ; and the dissolution of several of the old corps, 
under the pretext of their being tainted with an aristocratic 



330 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

feeling, aggravated the confusion and inefficiency of the War 
Department. Many of the most effective regiments during the 
last period of the monarchy had consisted of foreigners. These 
had either been slaughtered in defence of the throne against 
insurrections, like the Swiss ; or had been disbanded, and had 
crossed the frontier to recruit the forces which were assembling 
for the invasion of France. Above all, the emigration of the 
noblesse had stripped the French army of nearly all its officers 
of high rank and of the greatest portion of its subalterns. More 
than twelve thousand of the high-born youth of France, who 
had been trained to regard military command as their exclusive 
patrimony, and to whom the nation had been accustomed to 
look up as its natural guides and champions in the storm of 
war, were now marshalled beneath the banner of Conde and 
the other emigrant princes, for the overthrow of the French 
armies and the reduction of the French capital. Their suc- 
cessors in the French regiments and brigades had as yet ac- 
quired neither skill nor experience : they possessed neither self- 
reliance nor the respect of the men who were under them. 

Such was the state of the wrecks of the old army ; but the 
bulk of the forces with which France began the war consisted 
of raw insurrectionary levies, which were even less to be de- 
pended on. The Carmagnoles, as the revolutionary volunteers 
were called, flocked, indeed, readily to the frontier from every 
department when the war was proclaimed, and the fierce lead- 
ers of the Jacobins shouted that the country was in danger. 
They were full of zeal and courage, " heated and excited by the 
scenes of the Revolution, and inflamed by the florid eloquence, 
the songs, dances, and signal-words with which it had been 
celebrated."* But they were utterly undisciplined, and turbu- 
lently impatient of superior authority or systematical control. 
Many ruffians, also, who were sullied with* participation in the 
most sanguinary horrors of Paris, joined the camps, and were 
pre-eminent alike for misconduct before the enemy and for sav- 
age insubordination against their own officers. On one occa- 
sion during the campaign of Valmy, eight battalions of federates, 
intoxicated with massacre and sedition, joined the forces under 
Dumouriez, and soon threatened to uproot all discipline, saying 
openly that the ancient officers were traitors, and that it was 
necessary to purge the army, as they had Paris, of its aristo- 
crats. Dumouriez posted these battalions apart from the others, 

* Scott, " Life of Napoleon," vol. i., c. viii. 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 331 

placed a strong force of cavalry behind them, and two pieces 
of cannon on their flank. Then, affecting to review them, he 
halted at the head of the line, surrounded by all his staff, and 
an escort of a hundred hussars. " Fellows," said he, " for I 
will not call you either citizens or soldiers, you see before you 
this artillery, behind you this cavalry ; you are stained with 
crimes, and I do not tolerate here assassins or executioners. I 
know that there are scoundrels amongst you charged to excite 
you to crime. Drive them from amongst you, or denounce them 
to me, for I shall hold you responsible for their conduct." * 

One of our recent historians of the Revolution, who narrates 
this incident,f thus apostrophizes the French general : 

" Patience, O Dumouriez ! This uncertain heap of shriekers, 
mutineers, were they once drilled and inured, will become a 
phalanxed mass of fighters ; and wheel and whirl to order 
swiftly, like the wind or the whirlwind ; tanned mustachio- 
figures ; often barefoot, even barebacked, with sinews of iron ; 
who require only bread and gunpowder ; very sons of fire ; the 
adroitest, hastiest, hottest, ever seen perhaps since Attila's time." 

Such phalanxed masses of fighters did the Carmagnoles ulti- 
mately become ; but France ran a fearful risk in being obliged 
to rely on them when the process of their transmutation had 
barely commenced. 

The first events, indeed, of the war were disastrous and dis- 
graceful to France, even beyond what might have been expected 
from the chaotic state in which it found her armies as well as 
her government. In the hopes of profiting by the unprepared 
state of Austria, then the mistress of the Netherlands, the 
French opened the campaign of 1*792 by an invasion of Flan- 
ders, with forces whose muster-rolls showed a numerical over- 
whelming superiority to the enemy, and seemed to promise a 
speedy conquest of that old battle-field of Europe. But the first 
flash of an Austrian sabre or the first sound of Austrian gun 
was enough to discomfit the French. Their first corps, four 
thousand strong, that advanced from Lille across the frontier, 
came suddenly upon a far inferior detachment of the Austrian 
garrison of Tournay. Not a shot was fired, not a bayonet 
levelled. With one simultaneous cry of panic the French broke 
and ran headlong back to Lille, where they completed the 
specimen of insubordination which they had given in the field 
by murdering their general and several of their chief officers. 

* Lamartine. f Carlyle. 



332 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

On the same day, another division under Biron, mustering ten 
thousand sabres and bayonets, saw a few Austrian skirmishers 
reconnoitring their position. The French advanced posts had 
scarcely given and received a volley, and only a few balls from 
the enemy's field-pieces had fallen among the lines, when two 
regiments of French dragoons raised the cry, " We are be- 
trayed," galloped off, and were followed in disgraceful rout by 
the rest of the whole army. Similar panics, or repulses almost 
equally discreditable, occurred whenever Rochambeau, or Luck- 
ner, or La Fayette, the earliest French generals in the war, 
brought their troops into the presence of the enemy. 

Meanwhile, the allied sovereigns had gradually collected on 
the Rhine a veteran and finely disciplined army for the invasion 
of France, which for numbers, equipment, and martial renown, 
both of generals and men, was equal to any that Germany had 
ever sent forth to conquer. Their design was to strike boldly 
and decisively at the heart of France, and, penetrating the coun- 
try through the Ardennes, to proceed by Chalons upon Paris. 
The obstacles that lay in their way seemed insignificant. The 
disorder and imbecility of the French armies had been even 
augmented by the forced flight of La Fayette and a sudden 
change of generals. The only troops posted on or near the 
track by which the allies were about to advance were the 
twenty-three thousand men at Sedan, whom La Fayette had 
commanded, and a corps of twenty thousand near Metz, the 
command of which had just been transferred from Luckner to 
Ke Hermann. There were only three fortresses which it was 
necessary for the allies to capture or mask — Sedan, Longwy, 
and Verdun. The defences and stores of these three were 
known to be wretchedly dismantled and insufficient ; and when 
once these feeble barriers were overcome and Chalons reached, 
a fertile and unprotected country seemed to invite the invaders 
to that " military promenade to Paris " which they gayly talked 
of accomplishing. 

At the end of July the allied army, having completed all prep- 
arations for the campaign, broke up from its cantonments, and, 
marching from Luxembourg upon Longwy, crossed the French 
frontier. Sixty thousand Prussians, trained in the school, and 
many of them under the eye, of the Great Frederick, heirs of the 
glories of the Seven Years' War, and universally esteemed the 
best troops in Europe, marched in one column against the cen- 
tral point of attack. Forty-five thousand Austrians, the greater 
part of whom were picked troops, and had served in the recent 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 333 

Turkish war, supplied two formidable corps that supported the 
flanks of the Prussians. There was also a powerful body of 
Hessians, and leagued with the Germans against the Parisian 
democracy came fifteen thousand of the noblest and bravest 
among the sons of France. In these corps of emigrants, many 
of the highest -born of the French nobility, scions of houses 
whose chivalric trophies had for centuries filled Europe with re- 
nown, served as rank and file. They looked on the road to 
Paris as the path which they were to carve out by their swords 
to victory, to honor, to the rescue of their king, to reunion with 
their families, to the recovery of their patrimony, and to the 
restoration of their order.* 

Over this imposing army the allied sovereigns placed as gene- 
ralissimo the Duke of Brunswick, one of the minor reigning 
princes of Germany, a statesman of no mean capacity, and who 
had acquired in the Seven Years' War a military reputation 
second only to that of the Great Frederick himself. He had 
been deputed a few years before to quell the popular movements 
which then took place in Holland ; and he had put down the at- 
tempted revolution in that country with a promptitude and com- 
pleteness which appeared to augur equal success to the army that 
now marched under his orders on a similar mission into France. 

Moving majestically forward, with leisurely deliberation that 
seemed to show the consciousness of superior strength, and a 
steady purpose of doing their work thoroughly, the Allies ap- 
peared before Longwy on the 20th of August, and the dispirited 
and dependent garrison opened the gates of that fortress to them 
after the first shower of bombs. On the 2d of September the 
still more important stronghold of Verdun capitulated after 
scarcely the shadow of resistance. 

Brunswick's superior force was now interposed between Kel- 
lermann's troops on the left, and the other French army near 
Sedan, which La Fayette's flight had, for the time, left destitute 
of a commander. It was in the power of the German general, 
by striking with an overwhelming mass to the right and left, to 
crush in succession each of these weak armies, and the Allies 
might then have marched irresistible and unresisted upon Paris. 
But at this crisis Dumouriez, the new commander-in-chief of the 
French, arrived at the camp near Sedan, and commenced a series 
of movements, by which he reunited the dispersed and disor- 
ganized forces of his country, checked the Prussian columns 

* See Scott, " Life of Napoleon," vol. i., c. xi. 



334 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

at the very moment when the last obstacles of their triumph 
seemed to have given way, and finally rolled back the tide of in- 
vasion far across the enemy's frontier. 

The French fortresses had fallen ; but nature herself still of- 
fered to brave and vigorous defenders of the land the means of op- 
posing a barrier to the progress of the Allies. A ridge of broken 
ground, called the Argonne, extends from the vicinity of Sedan 
towards the southwest for about fifteen or sixteen leagues. 
The country of L' Argonne has now been cleared and drained ; 
but in 1792 it was thickly wooded, and the lower portions of 
its unequal surface were filled with rivulets and marshes. It 
thus presented a natural barrier of from four to five leagues 
broad, which was absolutely impenetrable to an army, except 
by a few defiles, such as an inferior force might easily fortify and 
defend. Dumouriez succeeded in marching his army down 
from Sedan behind the Argonne, and in occupying its passes, 
while the Prussians still lingered on the northeastern side of 
the forest line. Ordering Kellermann to wheel round from Metz 
to St. Menehould, and the reinforcements from the interior and 
extreme north also to concentrate at that spot, Dumouriez trusted 
to assemble a powerful force in the rear of the southwest ex- 
tremity of the Argonne, while, with the twenty-five thousand 
men under his immediate command, he held the enemy at bay 
before the passes, or forced him to a long circumvolution round 
one extremity of the forest ridge, during which favorable op- 
portunities of assailing his flank were almost certain to occur. 
Dumouriez fortified the principal defiles, and boasted of the 
Thermopylae which he had found for the invaders ; but the 
simile was nearly rendered fatally complete for the defending 
force. A pass, which was thought of inferior importance, had 
been but slightly manned, and an Austrian corps under Clair- 
fayt forced it after some sharp fighting. Dumouriez with great 
difficulty saved himself from being enveloped and destroyed by 
the hostile columns that now pushed through the forest. But 
instead of despairing at the failure of his plans, and falling back 
into the interior, to be completely severed from Kellermann's 
army, to be hunted as a fugitive under the walls of Paris by the 
victorious Germans, and to lose all chance of ever rallying his 
dispirited troops, he resolved to cling to the difficult country in 
which the armies still were grouped, to force a junction with 
Kellermann, and so to place himself at the head of a force which 
the invaders would not dare to disregard, and by which he might 
drag them back from the advance on Paris, which he had not 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 335 

been able to bar. Accordingly, by a rapid movement to the 
south, during which, in his own words, " France was within a 
hair's-breadth of destruction," and after, with difficulty, check- 
ing several panics of his troops, in which they ran by thousands 
at the sight of a few Prussian hussars, Dumouriez succeeded in 
establishing his headquarters in a strong position at St. Mene- 
hould, protected by the marshes and shallows of the rivers Aisne 
and Aube, beyond which, to the northwest, rose a firm and ele- 
vated plateau, called Dampierre's Camp, admirably situated for 
commanding the road by Chalons to Paris, and where he in- 
tended to post Kellermann's army so soon as it camp up.* 

The news of the retreat of Dumouriez from the Argonne 
passes, and of the panic flight of some divisions of his troops, 
spread rapidly throughout the country ; and Kellermann, who be- 
lieved that his comrade's army had been annihilated, and feared 
to fall among the victorious masses of the Prussians, had halted 
on his march from Metz when almost close to St. Menehould. 
He had actually commenced a retrograde movement, when 
couriers from his commander-in-chief checked him from that 
fatal course ; and then continuing to wheel round the rear and 
left flank of the troops at St. Menehould, Kellermann, with twenty 
thousand of the army of Metz, and some thousands of volunteers 
who had joined him in the march, made his appearance to the 
west of Dumouriez, on the very evening when Westerman and 
Thouvenot, two of the staff-officers of Dumouriez, galloped in 
with the tidings that Brunswick's army had come through the 
upper passes of the Argonne in full force, and was deploying on 
the heights of La Lune, a chain of eminences that stretch ob- 
liquely from southwest to northeast, opposite the nigh ground 
which Dumouriez held, and also opposite, but at a short dis- 
tance from, the position which Kellermann was designed to oc- 
cupy. 

The Allies were now, in fact, nearer to Paris than were the 
French troops themselves ; but, as Dumouriez had foreseen, 
Brunswick deemed it unsafe to march upon the capital with so 
large a hostile force left in his rear between his advancing col- 
umns and his base of operations. The young King of Prussia, 
who was in the allied camp, and the emigrant princes eagerly 
advocated an instant attack upon the nearest French general. 

* Some late writers represent that Brunswick did not wish to check 
Dumouriez. There is no sufficient authority for this insinuation, which seems 
to have been first prompted by a desire to soothe the wounded military pride 
of the Prussians. 



336 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

Kellermann had laid himself unnecessarily open by advancing 
beyond Dampierre's Camp, which Dumouriez had designed for 
him, and moving forward across the Aube to the plateau of 
Valmy — a post inferior in strength and space to that which he 
had left, and which brought him close upon the Prussian lines, 
leaving him separated by a dangerous interval from the troops 
under Dumouriez himself. It seemed easy for the Prussian 
army to overwhelm him while thus isolated, and then they 
might surround and crush Dumouriez at their leisure. 

Accordingly, the right wing of the allied army moved for- 
ward, in the gray of the morning of the 20th of September, to 
gain Kellermann's left flank and rear, and cut him off from re- 
treat upon Chalons ; while the rest of the army, moving from the 
heights of La Lune, which here converge semicircularly round 
the plateau of Yalmy, were to assail his position in front, and 
interpose between him and Dumouriez. An unexpected col- 
lision between some of the advanced cavalry on each side in the 
low ground warned Kellermann of the enemy's approach. Du- 
mouriez had not been unobservant of the danger of his comrade, 
thus isolated and involved; and he had ordered up troops to 
support Kellermann on either flank in the event of his being at- 
tacked. These troops, however, moved forward slowly ; and 
Kellerman's army, ranged on the plateau of Valmy, " projected 
like a cape into the midst of the lines of the Prussian bayo- 
nets." * A thick autumnal mist floated in waves of vapor over 
the plains and ravines that lay between the two armies, leaving 
only the crests and peaks of the hills glittering in the early 
light. About ten o'clock the fog began to clear off, and then 
the French from their promontory saw emerging from the white 
wreaths of mist, and glittering in the sunshine, the countless 
Prussian cavalry which were to envelop them as in a net if once 
driven from their position, the solid columns of the infantry that 
moved forward as if animated by a single will, the bristling 
batteries of the artillery, and the glancing clouds of the Austrian 
light troops, fresh from their contests with the Spahis of the 
East. 

The best and bravest of the French must have beheld this 
spectacle with secret apprehension and awe. However bold and 
resolute a man may be in the discharge of duty, it is an anxious 
and fearful thing to be called on to encounter danger among 

* See Lamartine, " Histoire des Girondins," livre xvii. I have drawn much 
of the ensuing description from him, 



&ATTLE OF VALMY. 337 

comrades of whose steadiness you can feel no certainty. Each 
soldier of Kellermann's army must have remembered the series of 
panic routs which had hitherto invariably taken place on the 
French side during the war ; and must have cast restless glances 
to the right and left, to see if any symptoms of wavering began 
to show themselves, and to calculate how long it was likely to 
be before a general rush of his comrades to the rear would either 
hurry him off with involuntary disgrace, or leave him alone and 
helpless, to be cut down by assailing multitudes. 

On that very morning, and at the self -same hour, in. which 
the allied forces and the emigrants began to descend from La 
Lune to the attack of Valmy, and while the cannonade was 
opening between the Prussian and the Revolutionary batteries, 
the debate in the National Convention at Paris commenced on 
the proposal to proclaim France a republic. 

The old monarchy had little chance of support in the hall of 
the Convention ; but if its more effective advocates at Valmy had 
triumphed, there were yet the elements existing in France for a 
permanent revival of the better part of the ancient institutions, 
and for substituting Reform for Revolution. Only a few weeks 
before, numerously signed addresses from the middle classes in 
Paris, Rouen, and other large cities had been presented to the 
king, expressive of their horror of the anarchists, and their 
readiness to uphold the rights of the crown, together with the 
liberties of the subject. And an armed resistance to the au- 
thority of the Convention, and in favor of the king, was in re- 
ality at this time being actively organized in La Vendee and 
Brittany, the importance of which may be estimated from the 
formidable opposition which the Royalists of these provinces 
made to the Republican party at a later period, and under much 
more disadvantageous circumstances. It is a fact peculiarly 
illustrative of the importance of the battle of Valmy, that " dur- 
ing the summer of 1792 the gentlemen of Brittany entered into 
an extensive association for the purpose of rescuing the coun- 
try from the oppressive yoke which had been imposed by the 
Parisian demagogues. At the head of the whole was the Mar- 
quis de la Rouarie, one of those remarkable men who rise into 
pre-eminence during the stormy days of a revolution, from con- 
scious ability to direct its current. Ardent, impetuous, and en- 
thusiastic, he was first distinguished in the American war, when 
the intrepidity of his conduct attracted the admiration of the 
Republican troops, and the same quality rendered him at first 
an ardent supporter of the Revolution in France ; but when the 



338 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

atrocities of the people began, he espoused with equal warmth 
the opposite side, and used the utmost efforts to raise the noblesse 
of Brittany against the plebeian yoke which had been imposed 
upon them by the National Assembly. He submitted his plan 
to the Count d'Artois, and had organized one so extensive as 
would have proved extremely formidable to the Convention if 
the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, in September, 1792, had 
not damped the ardor of the whole of the west of France, then 
ready to break out into insurrection." * 

And it was not only among the zealots of the old monarchy 
that the cause of the king would then have found friends. The 
ineffable atrocities of the September massacres had just oc- 
curred, and the reaction produced by them among thousands 
who had previously been active on the ultra - democratic side 
was fresh and powerful. The nobility had not yet been made 
utter aliens in the eyes of the nation by long expatriation and 
civil war. There was not yet a generation of youth educated in 
revolutionary principles, and knowing no worship save that of 
military glory. Louis XVI. was just and humane, and deeply 
sensible of the necessity of a gradual extension of political 
rights among all classes of his subjects. The Bourbon throne, 
if rescued in 1792, would have had chances of stability such as 
did not exist for it in 1814, and seem never likely to be found 
again in France. 

Serving under Kellermann on that day was one who expe- 
rienced, perhaps the most deeply of all men, the changes for 
good and for evil which the French Revolution has produced. 
He who, in his second exile, bore the name of the Count de 
Neuilly in this country, and who lately was Louis Philippe, 
king of the French, figured in the French lines at Valmy as a 
young and gallant officer, cool and sagacious beyond his years, 
and trusted accordingly by Kellermann and Dumouriez with an 
important station in the national army. The Due de Chartres 
(the title he then bore) commanded the French right, General 
Valence was on the left, and Kellermann himself took his post in 
the centre, which was the strength and key of his position. 

Besides these celebrated men, who were in the French army, 
and besides the King of Prussia, the Duke of Brunswick, and 
other men of rank and power who were in the lines of the 
Allies, there was an individual present at the battle of Valmy, of 
little political note, but who has exercised, and exercises, a 

* Alison, vol. iii., p. 323. 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 339 

greater influence over the human mind, and whose fame is more 
widely spread than that of either duke or general or king. 
This was the German poet Goethe, who had, out of curiosity, ac- 
companied the allied army on its march into France as a mere 
spectator. He has given us a curious record of the sensations 
which he experienced during the cannonade. It must be re- 
membered that many thousands in the French ranks then, like 
Goethe, felt the " cannon-fever " for the first time. The German 
poet says : * 

" I had heard so much of the cannon-fever that I wanted to 
know what kind of thing it was. Ennui, and a spirit which 
every kind of danger excites to daring — nay, even to rashness — 
induced me to ride up quite coolly to the outwork of La Lune. 
This was again occupied by our people ; but it presented the 
wildest aspect. The roofs were shot to pieces ; the corn-shocks 
scattered about, the bodies of men, mortally wounded, stretched 
upon them here and there ; and occasionally a spent cannon-ball 
fell and rattled among the ruins of the tile roofs. 

" Quite alone, and left to myself, I rode away on the heights 
to the left, and could plainly survey the favorable position of 
the French ; they were standing in the form of a semicircle in 
the greatest quiet and security ; Kellermann, then on the left 
wing, being the easiest to reach. 

" I fell in with good company on the way, officers of my 
acquaintance, belonging to the general staff and the regiment, 
greatly surprised to find me here. They wanted to take me 
back again with them ; but I spoke to them of particular ob- 
jects I had in view, and they left me without further dissuasion, 
to my well-known singular caprice. 

11 1 had now arrived quite in the region where the balls were 
playing across me : the sound of them is curious enough, as if 
it were composed of the humming of tops, the gurgling of wa- 
ter, and the whistling of birds. They were less dangerous, by 
reason of the wetness of the ground : wherever one fell, it stuck 
fast. And thus my foolish experimental ride was secured against 
the danger, at least, of the balls rebounding. 

" In the midst of these circumstances, I was soon able to re- 
mark that something unusual was taking place within me. I 
paid close attention to it, and still the sensation can be de- 
scribed only by similitude. It appeared as if you were in some 
extremely hot place, and, at the same time, quite penetrated by 

•Goethe's "Campaign in France in 1792" (Farie's translation), p. 11. 



\ 



340 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

the heat of it, so that you feel yourself, as it were, quite one 
with the element in which you are. The eyes lose nothing of 
their strength or clearness ; but it is as if the world had a kind 
of brown-red tint, which makes the situation, as well as the sur- 
rounding objects, more impressive. I was unable to perceive 
any agitation of the blood ; but everything seemed rather to be 
swallowed "up in the glow of which I speak. From this, then, 
it is clear in what sense this condition can be called a fever. It 
is remarkable, however, that the horrible uneasy feeling arising 
from it is produced in us solely through the ears ; for the can- 
non-thunder, the howling and crashing of the balls through the 
air, is the real cause of these sensations. 

" After I had ridden back and was in perfect security, I re- 
marked with surprise that the glow was completely extinguished, 
and not the slightest feverish agitation was left behind. On the 
whole, this condition is one of the least desirable ; as, indeed, 
among my dear and noble comrades I found scarcely one who 
expressed a really passionate desire to try it." 

Contrary to the expectations of both friends and foes, the 
French infantry held their ground steadily under the fire of the 
Prussian guns, which thundered on them from La Lune ; and 
their own artillery replied with equal spirit and greater effect on 
the denser masses of the allied army. Thinking that the Prus- 
sians were slackening in their fire, Kellermann formed a column 
in charging order, and dashed down into the valley, in the hopes 
of capturing some of the nearest guns of the enemy. A masked 
battery opened its fire on the French column, and drove it back 
in disorder, Kellermann having his horse shot under him, and 
being with difficulty carried off by his men. The Prussian col- 
umns now advanced in turn. The French artillerymen began to 
waver and desert their posts, but were rallied by the efforts and 
example of their officers ; and Kellermann, reorganizing the line 
of his infantry, took his station in the ranks on foot, and called 
out to his men to let the enemy come close up, and then to 
charge them with the bayonet. The troops caught the enthusi- 
asm of their general, and a cheerful shout of Vive la nation! 
taken by one battalion from another, pealed across the valley to 
the assailants. The Prussians flinched from a charge up-hill 
against a force that seemed so resolute and formidable ; they 
halted for a while in the hollow, and then slowly retreated up 
their own side of the valley. 

Indignant at being thus repulsed by such a foe, the King of 
Prussia formed the flower of his men in person, and, riding 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 341 

along the column, bitterly reproached them with letting their 
standard be thus humiliated. Then he led them on again to the 
attack, marching in the front line, and seeing his staff mowed 
down around him by the deadly fire which the French artillery 
reopened. But the troops sent by Dumouriez were now co- 
operating effectually with Kellermann ; and that general's own 
men, flushed by success, presented a firmer front than ever. 
Again the Prussians retreated, leaving eight hundred dead be- 
hind, and at nightfall the French remained victors on the heights 
of Valmy. 

All hopes of crushing the revolutionary armies, and of the 
promenade to Paris, had now vanished, though Brunswick lin- 
gered long in the Argonne, till distress and sickness wasted 
away his once splendid force, and finally but a mere wreck of 
it recrossed the frontier. France, meanwhile, felt that she 
possessed a giant's strength, and like a giant did she use it. 
Before the close of that year, all Belgium obeyed the National 
Convention at Paris, and the kings of Europe, after the lapse of 
eighteen centuries, trembled once more before a conquering 
military republic. 

Goethe's description of the cannonade has been quoted. His 
observation to his comrades in the camp of the Allies, at the end 
of the battle, deserves citation also. It shows that the poet felt 
(and, probably, he alone of the thousands there assembled felt) 
the full importance of that day. He describes the consternation 
and the change of demeanor which he observed among his Prus- 
sian friends that evening. He tells us that " most of them were 
silent ; and, in fact, the power of reflection and judgment was 
wanting to all. At last I was called upon to say what I thought 
of the engagement; for I had been in the habit of enlivening 
and amusing the troop with short sayings. This time I said : 
' From this place, and from this day forth, commences a new era 
in the world's history ; and you can all say that you were present 
at its birth. 1 " 

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF VALMY, 1792, 
AND THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, 1815. 

a.d. 1793. Trial and execution of Louis XVI. at Paris. Eng- 
land and Spain declare war against France. Royalist war in La 
Vendee. Second invasion of France by the Allies. 

1794. Lord Howe's victory over the French fleet. Final par- 
tition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. 



342 BATTLE OF VALMY. 

1795. The French armies under Pichegru conquer Holland. 
Cessation of the war in La Vendee. 

1796. Bonaparte commands the French army of Italy, and 
gains repeated victories over the Austrians. 

1797. Victory of Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent. Peace of 
Campo Formio between France and Austria. Defeat of the 
Dutch off Camperdown by Admiral Duncan. 

1798. Rebellion in Ireland. Expedition of the French under 
Bonaparte to Egypt. Lord Nelson destroys the French fleet at 
the battle of the Nile. 

1799. Renewal of the war between Austria and France. The 
Russian emperor sends an army in aid of Austria, under Suwar- 
row. The French are repeatedly defeated in Italy. Bonaparte 
returns from Egypt and makes himself First Consul of France. 
Massena wins the battle of Zurich. The Russian emperor makes 
peace with France. 

1800. Bonaparte passes the Alps and defeats the Austrians 
at Marengo. Moreau wins the battle of Hohenlinden. 

1801. Treaty of Luneville between France and Austria. The 
battle of Copenhagen. 

1802. Peace of Amiens. 

1803. War between England and France renewed. 

1804. Napoleon Bonaparte is made emperor of France. 

1805. Great preparations of Napoleon to invade England. 
Austria, supported by Russia, renews war with France. Napo- 
leon marches into Germany, takes Vienna, and gains the battle 
of Austerlitz. Lord Nelson destroys the combined French and 
Spanish fleets, and is killed at the battle of Trafalgar. 

1806. War between Prussia and France. Napoleon conquers 
Prussia in the battle of Jena. 

1807. Obstinate warfare between the French and Russian 
armies in East Prussia and Poland. Peace of Tilsit. 

1808. Napoleon endeavors to make his brother King of 
Spain. Rising of the Spanish nation against him. England 
sends troops to aid the Spaniards. Battles of Vimiera and Co- 
runna. 

1809. War renewed between France and Austria. Battles of 
Asperne and Wagram. Peace granted to Austria. Lord Wel- 
lington's victory of Talavera, in Spain. 

1810. Marriage of Napoleon and the Archduchess Maria 
Louisa. Holland annexed to France. 

1812. War between England and the United States. Napo- 
leon invades Russia. Battle of Borodino. The French occupy 



BATTLE OF VALMY. 343 

Moscow, which is burned. Disastrous retreat and almost total 
destruction of the great army of France. 

1813. Prussia and Austria take up arms again against France. 
Battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Culm, and Leipsic. The 
French are driven out of Germany. Lord Wellington gains the 
great battle of Vittoria, which completes the rescue of Spain 
from France. 

1814. The Allies invade France on the eastern, and Lord 
Wellington invades it on the southern, frontier. Battles of 
Laon, Montmirail, Arcis-sur-Aube, and others in the northeast 
of France ; and of Toulouse in the south. Paris surrenders to 
the Allies, and Napoleon abdicates. First restoration of the 
Bourbons. Napoleon goes to the isle of Elba, which is assigned 
to him by the Allies. Treaty of Ghent, between the United 
States and England. 

1815. Napoleon suddenly escapes from Elba, and lands in 
France. The French soldiery join him, and Louis XVIII. is 
obliged to fly from the throne. 



344 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, 1815. 
"Thou first and last of fields, king-making victory." — Byron. 

England has now been blessed with thirty-seven years of peace. 
At no other period of her history can a similarly long cessation 
from a state of warfare be found. It is true that our troops 
have had battles to fight during this interval for the protection 
and extension of our Indian possessions and our colonies ; but 
these have been with distant and unimportant enemies. The 
danger has never been brought near our own shores, and no 
matter of vital importance to our empire has ever been at stake. 
We have not had hostilities with either France, America, or 
Russia; and when not at war with any of our peers, we feel 
ourselves to be substantially at peace. There has, indeed, 
throughout this long period, been no great war, like those with 
which the previous history of modern Europe abounds. There 
have been formidable collisions between particular states; and 
there have been still more formidable collisions between the 
armed champions of the conflicting principles of absolutism and 
democracy ; but there has been no general war, like those of the 
French Revolution, like the American, or the Seven Years' War, 
or like the War of the Spanish Succession. It would be far too 
much to augur from this that no similar wars will again convulse 
the world ; but the value of the period of peace which Europe 
has gained is incalculable, even if we look on it as only a truce, 
and expect again to see the nations of the earth recur to what 
some philosophers have termed man's natural state of warfare. 

No equal number of years can be found during which science, 
commerce, and civilization have advanced so rapidly and so ex- 
tensively as has been the case since 1815. When we trace their 
progress, especially in this country, it is impossible not to feel 
that their wondrous development has been mainly due to the 
land having been at peace.* Their good effects cannot be ob- 

* See the excellent introduction to Mr. Charles Knight's "History of the 
Thirty Years' Peace." 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 345 

literated, even if a series of wars were to recommence. When 
we reflect on this, and contrast these thirty-seven years with the 
period that preceded them — a period of violence, of tumult, of 
unrestingly destructive energy ; a period throughout which the 
wealth of nations was scattered like sand, and the blood of na- 
tions lavished like water — it is impossible not to look with deep 
interest on the final crisis of that dark and dreadful epoch ; the 
crisis out of which our own happier cycle of years has been 
evolved. The great battle which ended the twenty-three years' 
war of the first French Revolution, and which quelled the man 
whose genius and ambition had so long disturbed and desolated 
the world, deserves to be regarded by us, not only with peculiar 
pride, as one of our greatest national victories, but with peculiar 
gratitude for the repose which it secured for us, and for the 
greater part of the human race. 

One good test for determining the importance of Waterloo is 
to ascertain what was felt by wise and prudent statesmen, before 
that battle, respecting the return of Napoleon from Elba to the 
imperial throne of France, and the probable effects of his suc- 
cess. For this purpose I will quote the words, not of any of 
our vehement anti-Gallican politicians of the school of Pitt, but 
of a leader of our Liberal party — of a man whose reputation as a 
jurist, an historian, and a far-sighted and candid statesman was, 
and is, deservedly high, not only in this country, but through- 
out Europe. Sir James Mackintosh, in the debate in the British 
House of Commons, on the 20th April, 1815, spoke thus of the 
return from Elba : 

" Was it in the power of language to describe the evil ? Wars 
which had raged for more than twenty years throughout Europe ; 
which had spread blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, 
and from Naples to Copenhagen ; which had wasted the means 
of human enjoyment, and destroyed the instruments of social 
improvement ; which threatened to diffuse among the European 
nations the dissolute and ferocious habits of a predatory sol- 
diery — at length, by one of those vicissitudes which bid defiance 
to the foresight of man, had been brought to a close, upon the 
whole, happy beyond all reasonable expectation, with no violent 
shock to national independence, with some tolerable compromise 
between the opinions of the age and reverence due to ancient 
institutions ; with no too signal or mortifying triumph over the 
legitimate interests or avowable feelings of any numerous body 
of men ; and, above all, without those retaliations against nations 
or parties which beget new convulsions, often as horrible as 



346 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

those which they close, and perpetuate revenge and hatred and 
bloodshed from age to age. Europe seemed to breathe after 
her sufferings. In the midst of this fair prospect, and of these 
consolatory hopes, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba ; three 
small vessels reached the coast of Provence ; our hopes are in- 
stantly dispelled ; the work of our toil and fortitude is undone ; 
the blood of Europe is spilt in vain — 

" ' Ibi omnis eff usus labor !' " 



The congress of emperors, kings, princes, generals, and states- 
men who had assembled at Vienna to remodel the world after 
the overthrow of the mighty conqueror, and who thought that 
Napoleon had passed away forever from the great drama of 
European politics, had not yet completed their triumphant fes- 
tivities and their diplomatic toils, when Talleyrand, on the 11th 
of March, 1815, rose up among them and announced that the 
ex-emperor had escaped from Elba, and was emperor of France 
once more. It is recorded by Sir Walter Scott, as a curious 
physiological fact, that the first effect of the news of an event 
which threatened to neutralize all their labors was to excite a 
loud burst of laughter from nearly every member of the con- 
gress.* But the jest was a bitter one ; and they soon were 
deeply busied in anxious deliberations respecting the mode in 
which they should encounter their arch-enemy, who had thus 
started from torpor and obscurity into renovated splendor and 
strength : 

"Qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus, 
Frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat, 
Nunc positis novus exuviis nitidusque juventa, 
Lubrica convolvit sublato pectore terga 
Arduus ad solem, et Unguis micat ore trisulcis." 

Virgil, JEm. 

Napoleon sought to disunite the formidable confederacy, 
which he knew would be arrayed against him, by endeavoring 
to negotiate separately with each of the allied sovereigns. It is 
said that Austria and Russia were at first not unwilling to treat 
with him. Disputes and jealousies had been rife among several 
of the Allies on the subject of the division of the conquered 
countries ; and the cordial unanimity with which they had acted 

* M Life of Napoleon," vol. viii., chap. i. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 347 

during 1813 and the first months of 1814 had grown chill dur- 
ing some weeks of discussions. But the active exertions of 
Talleyrand, who represented Louis XVIII. at the congress, and 
who both hated and feared Napoleon with all the intensity of 
which his powerful spirit was capable, prevented the secession 
of any member of the congress from the new great league against 
their ancient enemy. Still, it is highly probable that if Napo- 
leon had triumphed in Belgium over the Prussians and the Eng- 
lish, he would have succeeded in opening negotiations with the 
Austrians and Russians ; and he might have thus gained advan- 
tages similar to those which he had obtained on his return from 
Egypt, when he induced the Czar Paul to withdraw the Russian 
armies from co-operating with the other enemies of France in 
the extremity of peril to which she seemed reduced in 1799. 
But fortune now had deserted him, both in diplomacy and in war. 
On the 13th of March, 1815, the ministers of the seven pow- 
ers, Austria, Spain, England, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Swe- 
den, signed a manifesto by which they declared Napoleon an 
outlaw ; and this denunciation was instantly followed up by a 
treaty between England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia (to which 
other powers soon acceded), by which the rulers of those coun- 
tries bound themselves to enforce that decree, and to prosecute 
the war until Napoleon should be driven from the throne of 
France and rendered incapable of disturbing the peace of Eu- 
rope. The Duke of Wellington was the representative of Eng- 
land at the Congress of Vienna, and he was immediately applied 
to for his advice on the plan of military operations against 
France. It was obvious that Belgium would be the first battle- 
field ; and by the general wish of the Allies, the English duke 
proceeded thither to assemble an army from the contingents of 
Dutch, Belgian, and Hanoverian troops, that were most speedily 
available, and from the English regiments which his own gov- 
ernment was hastening to send over from this country. A 
strong Prussian corps was near Aix-la-Chapelle, having remained 
there since the campaign of the preceding year. This was 
largely reinforced by other troops of the same nation ; and 
Marshal Bliicher, the favorite hero of the Prussian soldiery, and 
the deadliest foe of France, assumed the command of this army, 
which was termed the Army of the Lower Rhine, and which, in 
conjunction with Wellington's forces, was to make the van of the 
armaments of the allied powers. Meanwhile Prince Schwartz- 
enberg was to collect 130,000 Austrians, and 124,000 troops 
of other Germanic states, as " the Army of the Upper Rhine ;" 



348 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

and 168,000 Russians, under the command of Barclay de Tolly, 
were to form "the Army of the Middle Rhine," and to repeat 
the march from Muscovy to that river's banks. 

The exertions which the allied powers thus made at this 
crisis to grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly 
been termed gigantic ; and never were Napoleon's genius and 
activity more signally displayed than in the celerity and skill by 
which he brought forward all the military resources of France, 
which the reverses of the three preceding years, and the pacific 
policy of the Bourbons during the months of their first restora- 
tion, had greatly diminished and disorganized. He re-entered 
Paris on the 20th of March, and by the end of May, besides send- 
ing a force into La Vendee to put down the armed risings of the 
royalists in that province, and besides providing troops under 
Massena and Suchet for the defence of the southern frontiers 
of France, Napoleon had an army assembled in the northeast 
for active operations under his own command, which amounted 
to between one hundred and twenty and one hundred and 
thirty thousand men, with a superb park of artillery and in the 
highest possible state of equipment, discipline, and efficiency.* 

The approach of the multitudinous Russian, Austrian, Bava- 
rian, and other foes of the French emperor to the Rhine was 
necessarily slow ; but the two most active of the allied powers 
had occupied Belgium with their troops, while Napoleon was 
organizing his forces. Marshal Bliicher was there with one 
hundred and sixteen thousand Prussians ; and, before the end 
of May, the Duke of Wellington was there also with about one 
hundred and six thousand troops, either British or in British 
pay.f Napoleon determined to attack these enemies in Bel- 
gium. The disparity of numbers was indeed great, but delay was 
sure to increase the proportionate numerical superiority of his 
enemies over his own ranks. The French emperor considered 
also that "the enemy's troops were now cantoned under the com- 
mand of two generals, and composed of nations differing both in 
interest and in feelings." J His own army was under his own 
sole command. It was composed exclusively of French soldiers, 

* See for these numbers Siborne's " History of the Campaign of Waterloo," 
vol. i., p. 41. 

f Ibid., vol. i., chap. iii. Wellington had but a small part of his old Penin- 
sular army in Belgium. The flower of it had been sent on the expeditions 
against America. His troops, in 1815, were chiefly second battalions, or 
regiments lately filled up with new recruits. See Scott, vol. viii., p. 474. 

\ See " Montholon's Memoirs," p. 45. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 349 

mostly of veterans, well acquainted with their officers and with 
each other, and full of enthusiastic confidence in their com- 
mander. If he could separate the Prussians from the British, 
so as to attack each singly, he felt sanguine of success, not only 
against these the most resolute of his many adversaries, but also 
against the other masses that were slowly laboring up against 
his eastern dominions. 

The triple chain of strong fortresses which the French pos- 
sessed on the Belgian frontier formed a curtain behind which 
Napoleon was able to concentrate his army, and to conceal, till 
the very last moment, the precise line of attack which he in- 
tended to take. On the other hand, Bliicher and Wellington 
were obliged to canton their troops along a line of open coun- 
try of considerable length, so as to watch for the outbreak of 
Napoleon from whichever point of his chain of strongholds he 
should please to make it. Bliicher, with his army, occupied the 
banks of the Sambre and the Meuse, from Liege on his left, to 
Charleroi on his right; and the Duke of Wellington covered 
Brussels, his cantonments being partly in front of that city 
and between it and the French frontier, and partly on its west ; 
their extreme right reaching to Courtray and Tournay, while 
the left approached Charleroi and communicated with the Prus- 
sian right. It was upon Charleroi that Napoleon resolved to 
level his attack, in hopes of severing the two allied armies from 
each other, and then pursuing his favorite tactics of assailing 
each separately with a superior force on the battle-field, though 
the aggregate of their numbers considerably exceeded his own. 

The first French corps d'armee, commanded by Count d'Erlon, 
was stationed, in the beginning of June, in and around the city 
of Lille, near to the northeastern frontier of France. The sec- 
ond corps, under Count Reille, was at Valenciennes, to the right 
of the first one. The third corps, under Count Vandamme, was 
at Mezieres. The fourth, under Count Gerard, had its head- 
quarters at Metz; and the sixth,* under Count Lobau, was at 
Laon. Four corps of reserve cavalry, under Marshal Grouchy, 
were also near the frontier, between the rivers Aisne and Sam- 
bre. The Imperial Guard remained in Paris until the 8th of 
June, when it marched towards Belgium, and reached Avesnes 
on the 13th; and in the course of the same and the following 
day, the five corps d'armee, with the cavalry reserves which have 
been mentioned, were, in pursuance of skilfully combined orders, 

♦The fifth corps was under Count Rapp at Strasburg. 



350 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

rapidly drawn together, and concentrated in and around the 
same place, on the right bank of the river Sambre. On the 14th 
Napoleon arrived among his troops, who were exulting at the 
display of their commander's skill in the celerity and precision 
with which they had been drawn together, and in the conscious- 
ness of their collective strength. Although Napoleon too often 
permitted himself to use language unworthy of his own character 
respecting his great English adversary, his real feelings in com- 
mencing this campaign may be judged from the last words 
which he spoke, as he threw himself into his travelling-carriage 
to leave Paris for the army. " I go," he said, " to measure my- 
self with Wellington." 

The enthusiasm of the French soldiers at seeing their emperor 
among them was still more excited by the " Order of the day," 
in which he thus appealed to them : 

" Napoleon, by the Grace of God, and the Constitution of the Empire, 
Emperor of the French, &c, to the Grand Army. 

" At the Imperial Headquarters, 

" Avesnes, June 14th, 1815. 

" Soldiers ! this day is the anniversary of Marengo and of Friedland, which 
twice decided the destiny of Europe. Then, as after Austerlitz, as after 
Wagram, we were too generous ! We believed in the protestations and in 
the oaths of princes, whom we left on their thrones. Now, however, leagued 
together, they aim at the independence and the most sacred rights of France. 
They have commenced the most unjust of aggressions. Let us, then, march 
to meet them. Are they and we no longer the same men ? 

"Soldiers! at Jena, against these same Prussians, now so arrogant, you 
were one to three, and at Montmirail one to six ! 

"Let those among you who have been captives to the English describe 
the nature of their prison-ships, and the frightful miseries they endured. 

" The Saxons, the Belgians, the Hanoverians, the soldiers of the Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine, lament that they are compelled to use their arms in the 
cause of princes, the enemies of justice and of the rights of all nations. They 
know that this coalition is insatiable ! After having devoured twelve millions 
of Poles, twelve millions of Italians, one million of Saxons, and six millions of 
Belgians, it now wishes to devour the states of the second rank in Germany. 

" Madmen ! one moment of prosperity has bewildered them. The oppres- 
sion and the humiliation of the French people are beyond their power. If 
they enter France, they will there find their grave. 

" Soldiers ! we have forced marches to make, battles to fight, dangers to 
encounter ; but, with firmness, victory will be ours. The rights, the honor, 
and the happiness of the country will be recovered ! 

"To every Frenchman who has a heart, the moment is now arrived to 
conquer or to die. 

" Napoleon. 

" The Marshal Duke of Dalmatia, 
" Major-General." 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 



351 



The 15tli of June had scarcely dawned before the French 
army was in motion for the decisive campaign, and crossed the 
frontier in three columns, which were pointed upon Charleroi 
and its vicinity. The French line of advance upon Brussels, 
which city Napoleon resolved to occupy, thus lay right through 
the centre of the cantonments of the Allies. 




VICINITY OP WATERLOO. 



Much criticism has been expended on the supposed surprise 
of Wellington's army in its cantonments by Napoleon's rapid 
advance. These comments would hardly have been made if 
sufficient attention had been paid to the geography of the Wa- 
terloo campaign ; and if it had been remembered that the pro- 
tection of Brussels was justly considered by the allied generals 
a matter of primary importance. If Napoleon could, either by 
manoeuvring or fighting, have succeeded in occupying that city, 
the greater part of Belgium would unquestionably have declared 
in his favor ; and the results of such a success, gained by the 
emperor at the commencement of the campaign, might have de- 
cisively influenced the whole after-current of events. A glance 



352 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

at the map will show the numerous roads that lead from the 
different fortresses on the French northeastern frontier, and 
converge upon Brussels ; any one of which Napoleon might 
have chosen for the advance of a strong force upon that city. 
The duke's army was judiciously arranged, so as to enable him 
to concentrate troops on any one of these roads sufficiently in 
advance of Brussels to check an assailing enemy. The army 
was kept thus available for movement in any necessary direc- 
tion, till certain intelligence arrived on the 15th of June that 
the French had crossed the frontier in large force near Thuin, 
that they had driven back the Prussian advanced troops under 
General Ziethen, and were also moving across the Sambre upon 
Charleroi. 

Marshal Blucher now rapidly concentrated his forces, calling 
them in from the left upon Ligny, which is to the northeast of 
Charleroi. Wellington also drew his troops together, calling 
them in from the right. But even now, though it was certain 
that the French were in large force at Charleroi, it was unsafe 
for the English general to place his army directly between that 
place and Brussels, until it was certain that no corps of the 
enemy was marching upon Brussels by the western road through 
Mons and Hal. The duke, therefore, collected his troops in 
Brussels and its immediate vicinity, ready to move due south- 
ward upon Quatre Bras, and co-operate with Blucher, who was 
taking his station at Ligny ; but also ready to meet and defeat 
any manoeuvre that the enemy might make to turn the right of 
the Allies and occupy Brussels by a flanking movement. The 
testimony of the Prussian general, Baron Muffling,* who was 
attached to the duke's staff during the campaign, and who 
expressly states the reasons on which the English general 
acted, ought forever to have silenced the " weak inventions 
of the enemy" about the Duke of Wellington having been 
deceived and surprised by his assailant, which some writers 
of our own nation, as well as foreigners, have incautiously re- 
peated. 

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th that 
a Prussian officer reached Brussels, whom General Ziethen had 

♦See "Passages from my Life and Writings," by Baron Miiffling, p. 224 
of the English translation, edited by Colonel Yorke. See also the 178th 
number of the " Quarterly." It is strange that Lamartine should, after the 
appearance of Muffling's work, have repeated in his " History of the Res- 
toration" the myth of Wellington having been surprised in the Brussels 
ballroom, etc. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 353 

sent to Muffling to inform him of the advance of the main French 
army upon Charleroi. Muffling immediately communicated this 
to the Duke of Wellington ; and asked him whether he would 
now concentrate his army, and what would be his point of con- 
centration ; observing that Marshal Blucher in consequence of 
this intelligence would certainly concentrate the Prussians at 
Ligny. The duke replied : " If all is as General Ziethen sup- 
poses, I will concentrate on my left wing, and so be in readiness 
to fight in conjunction with the Prussian army. Should, how- 
ever, a portion of the enemy's force come by Mons, I must con- 
centrate more towards my centre. This is the reason why I 
must wait for positive news from Mons before I fix the rendez- 
vous. Since, however, it is certain that the troops must march, 
though it is uncertain upon what precise spot they must march, 
I will order all to be in readiness, and will direct a brigade to 
move at once towards Quatre Bras." * 

Later in the same day a message from Blucher himself was 
delivered to Muffling, in which the Prussian field-marshal in- 
formed the baron that he was concentrating his men at Sombref 
and Ligny, and charged Muffling to give him speedy intelligence 
respecting the concentration of Wellington. Muffling immedi- 
ately communicated this to the duke, who expressed his satis- 
faction with Blucher's arrangements, but added that he could 
not even then resolve upon his own point of concentration be- 
fore he obtained the desired intelligence from Mons. About 
midnight this information arrived. The duke went to the 
quarters of General Muffling, and told him that he now had re- 
ceived his reports from Mons, and was sure that no French 
troops were advancing by that route, but that the mass of the 
enemy's force was decidedly directed on Charleroi. He in- 
formed the Prussian general that he had ordered the British 
troops to move forward upon Quatre Bras ; but with character- 
istic coolness and sagacity resolved not to give the appearance 
of alarm by hurrying on with them himself. A ball was to be 
given by the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels that night, and 
the duke proposed to General Muffling that they should go to 
the ball for a few hours, and ride forward in the morning to 
overtake the troops at Quatre Bras. 

To hundreds who were assembled at that memorable ball the 
news that the enemy was advancing, and that the time for battle 
had come, must have been a fearfully exciting surprise, and the 

* Muffling, p. 231. 



354 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

magnificent stanzas of Byron * are as true as they are beautiful ; 
but the duke and his principal officers knew well the stern ter- 

* " There was a sound of revelry by night, 
And Belgium's capital had gathered then 
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright 
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ; 
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 
Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, 
And all went merry as a marriage-bell. 
But, hush ! hark ! — a deep sound strikes like a rising knell. 

" Did ye not hear it ? — No ; 'twas but the wind, 

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street. 

On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ; 

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet 

To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet. 

But, hark ! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 

As if the clouds its echo would repeat; 

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! 
Arm ! arm ! it is — it is — the cannon's opening roar ! 

" Within a windowed niche of that high hall 
Sat Brunswick's fated chieftain ; he did hear 
That sound the first amidst the festival, 
And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear ; 
And when they smiled because he deemed it near, 
His heart more truly knew that peal too well 
Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier, 
And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell: 
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. 

" Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago 
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness; 
And there were sudden partings, such as press 
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs 
Which ne'er might be repeated ; who could guess 
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, 
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise? 

11 And there was mounting in hot haste : the steed, 
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, 
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ; 
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar; 
And near, the beat of the alarming drum 
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star; 
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, 
Or whispering, with white lips, • The foe ! They come ! they come V 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 355 

initiation to that festive scene which was approaching. One 
by one, and in such a way as to attract as little obervation as 
possible, the leaders of the various corps left the ballroom, and 
took their stations at the head of their men, who were pressing 
forward through the last hours of the short summer night to 
the arena of anticipated slaughter. 

Napoleon's operations on the 15th had been conducted with 
signal skill and vigor ; and their results had been very advan- 
tageous for his plan of the campaign. With his army formed 
in three vast columns,* he had struck at the centre of the line 
of cantonments of his allied foes ; and he had so far made good 
his blow that he had effected the passage of the Sambre, he 
had beaten with his left wing the Prussian corps of General 
Ziethen at Thuin, and with his centre he had in person ad- 
vanced right through Charleroi upon Fleurus, inflicting consid- 
erable loss upon the Prussians that fell back before him. His 
right column had with little opposition moved forward as far as 
the bridge of Chatelet. 

Napoleon had thus a powerful force immediately in front of 
the point which Bliicher had fixed for the concentration of the 
Prussian army, and that concentration was still incomplete. 
The French emperor designed to attack the Prussians on the 
morrow in person, with the troops of his centre and right col- 
umns, and to employ his left wing in beating back such English 
troops as might advance to the help of their allies, and also in 

"And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, 

Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass ; 

Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, 

Over the unreturning brave — alas ! 

Ere evening to be trodden like the grass 

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow 

In its next verdure, when this fiery mass 

Of living valor, rolling on the foe 
And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low. 

"Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 
Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay : 
The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife ; 
The morn, the marshalling in arms; the day, 
Battle's magnificently stem array ! 
The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent, 
The earth is covered thick with other clay, 
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 
Rider and horse — friend, foe — in one red burial blent." 

* " Victoires et Conqu&tes des Francais," vol. xxv., p. 111. 



356 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

aiding his own attack upon Bliicher. He gave the command of 
this left wing to Marshal Ney. Napoleon seems not to have orig- 
inally intended to employ this celebrated general in the cam- 
paign. It was only on the night of the 11th of June that 
Marshal Ney received at Paris an order to join the army. Hur- 
rying forward to the Belgian frontier, he met the emperor near 
Charleroi. Napoleon immediately directed him to take the 
command of the left wing, and to press forward with it upon 
Quatre Bras by the line of the road which leads from Charleroi 
to Brussels, through Gosselies, Frasne, Quatre Bras, Genappe, 
and Waterloo. Ney immediately proceeded to the post assigned 
him; and before ten on the night of the 15th he had occupied 
Gosselies and Frasne, driving out without much difficulty some 
weak Belgian detachments which had been stationed in those 
villages. The lateness of the hour, and the exhausted state of 
the French troops, who had been marching and fighting since 
ten in the morning, made him pause from advancing farther to 
attack the much more important position of Quatre Bras. In 
truth, the advantages which the French gained by their almost 
superhuman energy and activity throughout the long day of the 
15th of June were necessarily bought at the price of more de- 
lay and inertness during the following night and morrow than 
would have been observable if they had not been thus over- 
tasked. Ney has been blamed for want of promptness in his 
attack upon Quatre Bras, and Napoleon has been criticised for 
not having fought at Ligny before the afternoon of the 16th; 
but their censors should remember that soldiers are but men, 
and that there must be necessarily some interval of time before 
troops that have been worn and weakened by twenty hours of 
incessant fatigue and strife can be fed, rested, reorganized, and 
brought again into action with any hope of success. 

Having on the night of the 15th placed the most advanced of 
the French under his command in position in front of Frasne, 
Ney rode back to Charleroi, where Napoleon also arrived about 
midnight, having returned from directing the operations of the 
centre and right column of the French. The emperor and the 
marshal supped together, and remained in earnest conversation 
till two in the morning. An hour or two afterwards Ney rode 
back to Frasne, where he endeavored to collect tidings of the 
numbers and movements of the enemy in front of him ; and also 
busied himself in the necessary duty of learning the amount 
and composition of the troops which he himself was command- 
ing. He had been so suddenly appointed to his hiorb station 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 357 

that he did not know the strength of the several regiments un- 
der him, or even the names of their commanding officers. He 
now caused his aides-de-camp to prepare the requisite returns, 
and drew together the troops, whom he was thus learning before 
he used them. 

Wellington remained at the Duchess of Richmond's ball at 
Brussels till about three o'clock in the morning of the 16th, 
" showing himself very cheerful," as Baron Muffling, who ac- 
companied him, observes. 1 * At five o'clock the duke and the 
baron were on horseback, and reached the position at Quatre 
Bras about eleven. As the French, who were in front of Frasne, 
were perfectly quiet, and the duke was informed that a very 
large force under Napoleon in person was menacing Bliicher, 
it was thought possible that only a slight detachment of the 
French was posted at Frasne in order to mask the English army. 
In that event AVellington, as he told Baron Muffling, would be 
able to employ his whole strength in supporting the Prussians ; 
and he proposed to ride across from Quatre Bras to Blucher's 
position, in order to concert with him personally the measures 
which should be taken in order to bring on a decisive battle 
with the French. Wellington and Muffling rode accordingly 
towards Ligny, and found Marshal Blucher and his staff at the 
windmill of Bry, near that village. The Prussian army, 80,000 
strong, was drawn up chiefly along a chain of heights, with 
the villages of Sombref, St. Amand, and Ligny in their front. 
These villages were strongly occupied by Prussian detachments, 
and formed the keys of Blucher's position. The heads of the 
columns which Napoleon was forming for the attack were visi- 
ble in the distance. The duke asked Blucher and General 
Gneisenau (who was Blucher's adviser in matters of strategy) 
what they wished him to do. Muffling had already explained 
to them in a few words the duke's earnest desire to support the 
field-marshal, and that he would do all that they wished, pro- 
vided they did not ask him to divide his army, which was con- 
trary to his principles. The duke wished to advance with his 
army (as soon as it was concentrated) upon Frasne and Gosse- 
lies, and thence to move upon Napoleon's flank and rear. The 
Prussian leaders preferred that he should march his men from 
Quatre Bras by the Namur road, so as to form a reserve in rear 
of Blucher's army. The duke replied, "Well, I will come if 
I am not attacked myself," and galloped back with Muffling 

* Muffling, p. 233. 



358 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

to Quatre Bras, where the French attack was now actually rag- 
ing. 

Marshal Ney began the battle about two o'clock in the after- 
noon. He had at this time in hand about 16,000 infantry, 
nearly 2000 cavalry, and 38 guns. The force which Napoleon 
nominally placed at his command exceeded 40,000 men. But 
more than one half of these consisted of the first French corps 
d'armee, under Count d'Erlon ; and Ney was deprived of the 
use of this corps at the time that he most required it, in con- 
sequence of its receiving orders to march to the aid of the em- 
peror at Ligny. A magnificent body of heavy cavalry under 
Kellermann, nearly 5000 strong, and several more battalions of 
artillery were added to Ney's army during the battle of Quatre 
Bras; but his effective infantry force never exceeded 16,000. 

When the battle began, the greater part of the duke's army 
was yet on its march towards Quatre Bras from Brussels, and 
the other parts of its cantonments. The force of the Allies, 
actually in position there, consisted only of a Dutch and Belgian 
division of infantry, not quite 7000 strong, with one battalion 
of foot, and one of horse-artillery. The Prince of Orange com- 
manded them. A wood, called the Bois de Bossu, stretched 
along the right (or western) flank of the position of Quatre 
Bras ; a farm-house and building, called Gemiancourt, stood on 
some elevated ground in its front; and to the left (or east) 
were the enclosures of the village of Pierremont. The Prince 
of Orange endeavored to secure these posts ; but Ney carried 
Gemiancourt in the centre, and Pierremont on the east, and 
gained occupation of the southern part of the wood of Bossu. 
He ranged the chief part of his artillery on the high ground of 
Gemiancourt, whence it played throughout the action with most 
destructive effect upon the Allies. He was pressing forward 
to further advantages, when the fifth infantry division, under Sir 
Thomas Picton, and the Duke of Brunswick's corps, appeared 
upon the scene. Wellington (who had returned to Quatre Bras 
from his interview with Blucher shortly before the arrival of 
these forces) restored the fight with them ; and as fresh troops 
of the Allies arrived, they were brought forward to stem the 
fierce attacks which Ney's columns and squadrons continued to 
make with unabated gallantry and zeal. The only cavalry of 
the Anglo-allied army that reached Quatre Bras during the ac- 
tion consisted of Dutch and Belgians, and a small force of 
Brunswickers under their duke, who was killed on the field. 
These proved wholly unable to encounter Kellermann's cuirassiers 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 359 

and Pire's lancers. The Dutch and Belgian infantry also gave 
way early in the engagement ; so that the whole brunt of the 
battle fell on the British and German infantry. They sustained 
it nobly. Though repeatedly charged by the French cavalry, 
though exposed to the murderous fire of the French batteries, 
which from the heights of Gemiancourt sent shot and shell into 
the devoted squares whenever the French horsemen withdrew, 
they not only repelled their assailants, but Kempt's and Pack's 
brigades, led on by Picton, actually advanced against and through 
their charging foes, and with stern determination made good to 
the end of the day the ground which they had thus boldly won. 
Some, however, of the British regiments were during the con- 
fusion assailed by the French cavalry before they could form 
squares, and suffered severely. One regiment, the 92d, was al- 
most wholly destroyed by the cuirassiers. A French private 
soldier, named Lami, of the 8th Regiment of cuirassiers, captured 
one of the English colors, and presented it to Ney. It was a 
solitary trophy. The arrival of the English Guards about half- 
past six o'clock enabled the duke to recover the wood of Bossn, 
which the French had almost entirely won, and the possession 
of which by them would have enabled Ney to operate destruc- 
tively upon the allied flank and rear. Not only was the wood 
of Bossu recovered on the British right, but the enclosures of 
Pierremont were also carried on the left. When night set in 
the French had been driven back on all points towards Frasne ; 
but they still held the farm of Gemiancourt in front of the 
duke's centre. Wellington and Muffling were unacquainted 
with the result of the collateral battle between Bliicher and Na- 
poleon, the cannonading of which had been distinctly audible at 
Quatre Bras throughout the afternoon and evening. The duke 
observed to Muffling that of course the two allied armies would 
assume the offensive against the enemy on the morrow ; and, 
consequently, it would be better to capture the farm at once, 
instead of waiting till next morning. Muffling agreed in the 
duke's views, and Gemiancourt was forthwith attacked by the 
English and captured with little loss to the assailants.* 

Meanwhile the French and the Prussians had been fighting in 
and round the villages of Ligny, Sombref, and St. Amand, from 
three in the afternoon to nine in the evening, with a savage in- 
veteracy almost unparalleled in modern warfare. Bliicher had 
in the field, when he began the battle, 83,417 men and 224 

* Muffling, p. 242. 



300 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

guns. Billow's corps, which was 25,000 strong, had not joined 
him ; but the field-marshal hoped to be reinforced by it or by 
the English army before the end of the action. But Bulow, 
through some error in the transmission of orders, was far in the 
rear ; and the Duke of Wellington was engaged, as we have seen, 
with Marshal Ney. Blucher received early warning from Baron 
Muffling that the duke could not come to his assistance ; but, as 
Muffling observes, Wellington rendered the Prussians the great 
service of occupying more than 40,000 of the enemy, who other- 
wise would have crushed Bliicher's right flank. For not only 
did the conflict at Quatre Bras detain the French troops which 
actually took part in it, but d'Erlon received orders from Ney to 
join him, which hindered d'Erlon from giving effectual aid to 
Napoleon. Indeed, the whole of d'Erlon's corps, in consequence 
of conflicting directions from Ney and the emperor, marched 
and countermarched, during the 16th, between Quatre Bras and 
Ligny without firing a shot in either battle. 

Blucher had, in fact, a superiority of more than 12,000 in 
number over the French army that attacked him at Ligny. The 
numerical difference was even greater at the beginning of the 
battle, as Loban's corps did not come up from Charleroi till 
eight o'clock. After five hours and a half of desperate and 
long-doubtful struggle, Napoleon succeeded in breaking the 
centre of the Prussian line at Ligny, and in forcing his obsti- 
nate antagonists off the field of battle. The issue was attribu- 
table to his skill, and not to any want of spirit or resolution on 
the part of the Prussian troops ; nor did they, though defeated, 
abate one jot in discipline, heart, or hope. As Blucher observed, 
it was a battle in which his army lost the day but not its honor. 
The Prussians retreated during the night of the 16th, and the 
early part of the 17th, with perfect regularity and steadiness. 
The retreat was directed not towards Maestricht, where their 
principal depots were established, but towards Wavre, so as to 
be able to maintain their communication with Wellington's army, 
and still follow out the original plan of the campaign. The 
heroism with which the Prussians endured and repaired their 
defeat at Ligny is more glorious than many victories. 

The messenger who was sent to inform Wellington of the 
retreat of the Prussian army was shot on the way ; and it was 
not until the morning of the 17th that the Allies, at Quatre 
Bras, knew the result of the battle of Ligny. The duke was 
ready at daybreak to take the offensive against the enemy with 
vigor, his whole army being by that time fully assembled. But 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 361 

on learning that Bliicher had been defeated, a different course 
of action was clearly necessary. It was obvious that Napoleon's 
main army would now be directed against Wellington, and a re- 
treat was inevitable. On ascertaining that the Prussian army 
had retired upon Wavre, that there was no hot pursuit of them 
by the French, and that Bulow's corps had taken no part in the 
action at Ligny, the duke resolved to march his army back 
towards Brussels, still intending to cover that city, and to halt 
at a point in a line with Wavre, and there restore his communi- 
cation with Bliicher. An officer from Bliicher's army reached 
the duke about nine o'clock, from whom he learned the effective 
strength that Bliicher still possessed, and how little discouraged 
his ally was by the yesterday's battle. Wellington sent word to 
the Prussian commander that he would halt in the position of 
Mont St. Jean, and accept a general battle with the French, if 
Bliicher would pledge himself to come to his assistance with a 
single corps of 25,000 men. This was readily promised ; and 
after allowing his men ample time for rest and refreshment, 
Wellington retired over about half the space between Quatre 
Bras and Brussels. He was pursued, but little molested, by the 
main French army, which about noon of the 17th moved later- 
ally from Ligny, and joined Ney's forces, which had advanced 
through Quatre Bras when the British abandoned that posi- 
tion. The Earl of Uxbridge, with the British cavalry, covered 
the retreat of the duke's army with great skill and gallantry ; 
and a heavy thunder-storm, with torrents of rain, impeded the 
operations of the French pursuing squadrons. The duke still 
expected that the French would endeavor to turn his right, and 
march upon Brussels by the high-road that leads through Mons 
and Hal. In order to counteract this anticipated manoeuvre, lie 
stationed a force of 18,000 men, under Prince Frederick of the 
Netherlands, at Hal, with orders to maintain himself there, if 
attacked, as long as possible. The duke halted with the rest 
of his army at the position near Mont St. Jean which, from a 
village in its neighborhood, has received the ever-memorable 
name of the field of Waterloo. 

Wellington was now about twelve miles distant, on a line run- 
ning from west to east, from Wavre, where the Prussian army 
had now been completely reorganized and collected, and where 
it had been strengthened by the junction of Bulow's troops, 
which had taken no part in the battle of Ligny. Bliicher sent 
word from Wavre to the duke that he was coming to help the 
English at Mont St. Jean, in the morning, not with one corps, 



362 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

but with his whole army. The fiery old man only stipulated 
that the combined armies, if not attacked by Napoleon on the 
18th, should themselves attack him on the 19th. So far were 
Blucher and his army from being in the state of annihilation 
described in the boastful bulletin by which Napoleon informed 
the Parisians of his victory at Ligny. Indeed, the French em- 
peror seems himself to have been misinformed as to the extent 
of loss which he had inflicted on the Prussians. Had he known 
in what good order and with what undiminished spirit they 
were retiring, he would scarcely have delayed sending a large 
force to press them in their retreat until noon on the 17th. 
Such, however, was the case. It was about that time that he 
confided to Marshal Grouchy the duty of pursuing the defeated 
Prussians, and preventing them from joining Wellington. He 
placed for this purpose 32,000 men and 96 guns under his or- 
ders. Violent complaints and recriminations passed afterwards 
between the emperor and the marshal respecting the manner in 
which Grouchy attempted to perform this duty, and the reasons 
why he failed on the 18th to arrest the lateral movement of the 
Prussians from Wavre to Waterloo. It is sufficient to remark 
here, that the force which Napoleon gave to Grouchy (though 
the utmost that the emperor's limited means would allow) was 
insufficient to make head against the entire Prussian army, 
especially after Bulow's junction with Blucher. We shall pres- 
ently have occasion to consider what opportunities were given 
to Grouchy during the 18th, and what he might have effected if 
he had been a man of original military genius. 

But the failure of Grouchy was in truth mainly owing to the 
indomitable heroism of Blucher himself ; who, though he had 
received severe personal injuries in the battle of Ligny, was as 
energetic and ready as ever in bringing his men into action again, 
and who had the resolution to expose a part of his army, under 
Thielman, to be overwhelmed by Grouchy at Wavre on the 18th, 
while he urged the march of the mass of his troops upon Water- 
loo. " It is not at Wavre, but at Waterloo," said the old field- 
marshal, " that the campaign is to be decided ;" and he risked a 
detachment, and won the campaign accordingly. Wellington 
and Blucher trusted each other as cordially, and co-operated as 
zealously, as formerly had been the case with Marlborough and 
Eugene. It was in full reliance on Blucher' s promise to join 
him that the duke stood his ground and fought at Waterloo ; 
and those who have ventured to impugn the duke's capacity as 
a general ought %o have had common-sense enough to perceive 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 363 

that to charge the duke with having won the battle of Waterloo 
by the help of the Prussians is really to say that he won it by 
the very means on which he relied, and without the expectation 
of which the battle would not have been fought. 

Napoleon himself has found fault with Wellington for not 
having retreated farther, so as to complete a junction of his 
army with Blucher's before he risked a general engagement.* 
But, as we have seen, the duke justly considered it important 
to protect Brussels. He had reason to expect that his army 
could singly resist the French at Waterloo until the Prussians 
came up ; and that, on the Prussians joining, there would be a 
sufficient force united under himself and Blucher for completely 
overwhelming the enemy. And while Napoleon thus censures 
his great adversary, he involuntarily bears the highest possible 
testimony to the military character of the English, and proves 
decisively of what paramount importance was the battle to which 
he challenged his fearless opponent. Napoleon asks, " If the 
English army had been beaten at Waterloo, what ivould have been 
the use of those numerous bodies of troops, of Prussians, Austrians, 
Germans, and Spaniards, ivhich were advancing by forced marches 
to the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees ?" f 

The strength of the army under the Duke of Wellington at 
Waterloo was 49,608 infantry, 12,402 cavalry, and 5645 artil- 
lerymen with 156 guns. | But of this total of 67,655 men, 
scarcely 24,000 were British, a circumstance of very serious im- 
portance, if Napoleon's own estimate of the relative value of 
troops of different nations is to be taken. In the emperor's 
own words, speaking of this campaign, " A French soldier would 
not be equal to more than one English soldier, but he would not 
be afraid to meet two Dutchmen, Prussians, or soldiers of the 
Confederation." § There were about 6000 men of the old Ger' 
man Legion with the duke ; these were veteran troops, and of 
excellent quality. Of the rest of the army the Hanoverians and 
Brunswickers proved themselves deserving of confidence and 
praise. But the Nassauers, Dutch, and Belgians were almost 
worthless; and not a few of them were justly suspected of a 
strong wish to fight, if they fought at all, under the French 
eagles rather than against them. 

Napoleon's army at Waterloo consisted of 48,950 infantry, 
15,765 cavalry, 7232 artillerymen, being a total of 71,947 men, 

* See " Montholon's Memoirs," vol. iv., p. 44. \ Ibid. 

X Siborne, vol. i., p. 376. § "Montholon's Memoirs," vol. iv., p. 41. 



364 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

and 246 guns.* They were the flower of the national forces of 
France ; and of all the numerous gallant armies which that mar- 
tial land has poured forth, never was there one braver, or better 
disciplined, or better led than the host that took up its position 
at Waterloo on the morning of the 18th of June, 1815. 

Perhaps those who have not seen the field of battle at Water- 
loo, or the admirable model of the ground and of the conflict- 
ing armies which was executed by Captain Siborne, may gain a 
generally accurate idea of the localities by picturing to them- 
selves a valley between two and three miles long, of various 
breadths at different points, but generally not exceeding half a 
mile. On each side of the valley there is a winding chain of low 
hills running somewhat parallel with each other. The declivity 
from each of these ranges of hills to the intervening valley is 
gentle but not uniform, the undulations of the ground being 
frequent and considerable. The English army was posted on the 
northern and the French army occupied the southern ridge. 
The artillery of each side thundered at the other from their re- 
spective heights throughout the day, and the charges of horse 
and foot were made across the valley that has been described. 
The village of Mont St. Jean is situate a little behind the centre 
of the northern chain of hills, and the village of La Belle Alliance 
is close behind the centre of the southern ridge. The high- 
road from Charleroi to Brussels (a broad paved causeway) runs 
through both these villages, and bisects therefore both the Eng- 
lish and the French position. The line of this road was the 
line of Napoleon's intended advance on Brussels. 

There are some other local particulars connected with the 
situation of each army which it is necessary to bear in mind.f 
The strength of the British position did not consist merely in 
the occupation of a ridge of high ground. A village and ravine, 
called Merk Braine, on the Duke of Wellington's extreme right, 
secured his flank from being turned on that side ; and on his 
extreme left two little hamlets, called La Haye and Papelotte, 
gave a similar, though a slighter, protection. Behind the whole 
British position is the extensive forest of Soignies. As no at- 
tempt was made by the French to turn either of the English 
flanks, and the battle was a day of straightforward fighting, it is 
chiefly important to ascertain what posts there were in front of 
the British line of hills of which advantage could be taken 
either to repel or facilitate an attack; and it will be seen that 

* See Siborne, ut supra. f See plan at p. 369. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 365 

there were two, and that each was of very great importance in 
the action. In front of the British right — that is to say, on the 
northern slope of the valley towards its western end — there stood 
an old-fashioned Flemish farm-house called Goumont, or Hon- 
goumont, with out-buildings and a garden, and with a copse of 
beech-trees of about two acres in extent round it. This was 
strongly garrisoned by the allied troops ; and, while it was in 
their possession, it was difficult for the enemy to press on and 
force the British right wing. On the other hand, if the enemy 
could take it, it would be difficult for that wing to keep its ground 
on the heights, with a strong post held adversely in its immediate 
front, being one that would give much shelter to the enemy's 
marksmen, and great facilities for the sudden concentration of 
attacking columns. Almost immediately in front of the British 
centre, and not so far down the slope as Hougoumont, there was 
another farm-house, of a smaller size, called La Haye Sainte,* 
which was also held by the British troops, and the occupation of 
which was found to be of very serious consequence. 

With respect to the French position, the principal feature to 
be noticed is the village of Planchenoit, which lay a little in 
the rear of their right (i. e., on the eastern side), and which 
proved to be of great importance in aiding them to check the 
advance of the Prussians. 

Napoleon, in his memoirs, and other French writers, have 
vehemently blamed the duke for having given battle in such a 
position as that of Waterloo. They particularly object that the 
duke fought without having the means of a retreat, if the at- 
tacks of his enemy had proved successful ; and that the Eng- 
lish army, if once broken, must have lost all its guns and mate- 
riel in its flight through the forest of Soignies, that lay in its 
rear. In answer to these censures, instead of merely referring 
to the event of the battle as proof of the correctness of the 
duke's judgment, it is to be observed that many military crit- 
ics of high authority have considered the position of Waterloo 
to have been admirably adapted for the duke's purpose of pro- 
tecting Brussels by a battle ; and that certainly the duke's 
opinion in favor of it was not lightly or hastily formed. It is 
a remarkable fact (mentioned in the speech of Lord Bathurst 
when moving the vote of thanks to the duke in the House of 
Lords), f that when the Duke of Wellington was passing through 

* Not to be confounded with the hamlet of La Haye at the extreme left of 
the British line. 

f " Parliamentary Debates," vol. xxxi., p. 875. 



366 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

Belgium in the preceding summer of 1814, he particularly no- 
ticed the strength of the position of Waterloo, and made a 
minute of it at the time, stating to those who were with him 
that if it ever should be his fate to fight a battle in that quarter 
for the protection of Brussels, he should endeavor to do so in 
that position. And with respect to the forest of Soignies, 
which the French (and some few English) critics have thought 
calculated to prove so fatal to a retreating force, the duke, on 
the contrary, believed it to be a post that might have proved of 
infinite value to his army in the event of his having been obliged 
to give way. The forest of Soignies has no thicket or masses 
of close-growing trees. It consists of tall beaches, and is every- 
where passable for men and horses. The artillery could have 
been withdrawn by the broad road which traverses it towards 
Brussels ; and in the meanwhile a few regiments of resolute 
infantry could have held the forest and kept the pursuers in 
check. One of the best writers on the Waterloo campaign, 
Captain Pringle,* well observes that " every person the least 
experienced in war knows the extreme difficulty of forcing 
infantry from a wood which cannot be turned." The defence 
of the Bois de Bossu near Quatre Bras on the 16th of June 
had given a good proof of this ; and the Duke of Wellington, 
when speaking in after-years of the possible events that might 
have followed if he had been beaten back from the open field 
of Waterloo, pointed to the wood of Soignies as his secure 
rally ing-place, saying, " They never could have beaten us so that 
we could not have held the wood against them." He was al- 
ways confident that he could have made good that post until 
joined by the Prussians, upon whose co-operation he through- 
out depended.f 

As has been already mentioned, the Prussians on the morning 
of the 18th were at Wavre, which is about twelve miles to the 
east of the field of battle of Waterloo. The junction of Bulow's 
division had more than made up for the loss sustained at Ligny ; 
and leaving Thielman with about seventeen thousand men to 
hold his ground, as he best could, against the attack which 
Grouchy was about to make on Wavre, Bulow and Blucher 
moved with the rest of the Prussians through St. Lambert upon 
Waterloo. It was calculated that they would be there by three 



* See the Appendix to the 8th volume of Scott's " Life of Napoleon." 
f See Lord Ellesmere's " Life and Character of the Duke of Wellington," 
p. 40. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 367 

o'clock ; but the extremely difficult nature of the ground which 
they had to traverse, rendered worse by the torrents of rain 
that had just fallen, delayed them long on their twelve miles' 
march. 

An army, indeed, less animated by bitter hate against the 
enemy than were the Prussians, and under a less energetic chief 
than Bliicher, would have failed altogether in effecting a passage 
through the swamps into which the incessant rain had trans- 
formed the greater part of the ground through which it was 
necessary to move, not only with columns of foot, but with 
cavalry and artillery. At one point of the march, on entering 
the defile of St. Lambert, the spirits of the Prussians almost 
gave way. Exhausted in the attempts to extricate and drag 
forward the heavy guns, the men began to murmur. Bliicher 
came to the spot, and heard cries from the ranks of " We 
cannot get on." " But you must get on," was the old field- 
marshal's answer. " I have pledged my word to Wellington, 
and you surely will not make me break it. Only exert your- 
selves for a few hours longer, and we are sure of victory." 
This appeal from old " Marshal Forwards," as the Prussian 
soldiers loved to call Bliicher, had its wonted effect. The Prus- 
sians again moved forward, slowly, indeed, and with pain and 
toil ; but still they moved forward.* 

The French and British armies lay on the open field during 
the wet and stormy night of the 17th; and when the dawn of 
the memorable 18th of June broke, the rain was still descend- 
ing heavily upon Waterloo. The rival nations rose from their 
dreary bivouacs, and began to form, each on the high ground 
which it occupied. Towards nine the weather grew clearer, 
and each army was able to watch the position and arrange- 
ments of the other on the opposite side of the valley. 

The Duke of Wellington drew up his army in two lines ; the 
principal one being stationed near the crest of the ridge of hills 
already described, and the other being arranged along the slope 
in the rear of his position. Commencing from the eastward, on 
the extreme left of the first or main line, were Vivian's and 
Vandeleur's brigades of light cavalry, and the fifth Hanoverian 
brigade of infantry under Von Vincke. Then came Best's 
fourth Hanoverian brigade. Detachments from these bodies 
of troops occupied the little villages of Papelotte and La Haye, 
down the hollow in advance of the left of the duke's position. 

* See Siborne, vol. ii., p. 137. 



368 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

To the right of Best's Hanoverians, Bylandt's brigade of Dutch 
and Belgian infantry was drawn up on the outer slope of the 
heights. Behind them were the ninth brigade of British in- 
fantry under Pack ; and to the right of these last, but more in 
advance, stood the eighth brigade of English infantry under 
Kempt. These were close to the Charleroi road, and to the 
centre of the entire position. These two English brigades, with 
the fifth Hanoverian, made up the fifth division, commanded 
by Sir Thomas Picton. Immediately to their right, and west- 
ward of the Charleroi road, stood the third division, commanded 
by General Alten, and consisting of Ompteda's brigade of the 
kino-'s German Legion and Kielmansegge's Hanoverian brigade. 
The important post of La Haye Sainte, which, it will be remem- 
bered, lay in front of the duke's centre, close to the Charleroi 
road, was garrisoned with troops from this division. West- 
ward, and on the right of Kielmansegge's Hanoverians, stood 
the fifth British brigade under Halkett; and behind, Kruse's 
Nassau brigade was posted. On the right of Halkett's men 
stood the English Guards. They were in two brigades, one 
commanded by Maitland, and the other by Byng. The entire 
division was under General Cooke. The buildings and gardens 
of Hougoumont, which lay immediately under the height on 
which stood the British Guards, were principally manned by 
detachments from Byng's brigade, aided by some brave Hano- 
verian riflemen, and accompanied by a battalion of a Nassau 
regiment. On a plateau in the rear of Cooke's division of Guards, 
and inclining westward towards the village of Merbe Braine, 
were Clinton's second infantry division, composed of Adams's 
third brigade of light infantry, Du Plat's first brigade of the 
king's German Legion, and third Hanoverian brigade under 
Colonel Halkett. 

The duke 'formed his second line of cavalry. This only ex- 
tended behind the right and centre of his first line. The largest 
mass was drawn up behind the brigades of infantry in the cen- 
tre, on either side of the Charleroi road. The brigade of house- 
hold cavalry under Lord Somerset was on the immediate right 
of the road, and on the left of it was Ponsonby's brigade. Be- 
hind these were Trip's and Ghingy's brigades of Dutch and 
Belgian horse. The third Hussars of the king's German Legion 
were to the right of Somerset's brigade. To the right of these, 
and behind Maitland's infantry, stood the third brigade under 
Dornberg, consisting of the 23d English light dragoons and 
the regiments of light dragoons of the king's German Legion. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 



369 



The last cavalry on the right was Grant's brigade, stationed in 
the rear of the Foot-Guards. The corps of Brunswickers, both 
horse and foot, and the 10th British brigade of foot, were in 
reserve behind the centre and right of the entire position. The 
artillery was distributed at convenient intervals along the front 
of the whole line. Besides the generals who have been men- 
tioned, Lord Hill, Lord Uxbridge (who had the general com- 
mand of the cavalry), the Prince of Orange, and General Chasse 
were present, and acting under the duke.* 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

Junk 18th, 1815, 11 a.m. 

1. Vivian. 5. Pack. 9. Alten. 

». Vandeleur. 6. Bylandt. 10. Halkett. 

3. Saxe-Weimar. 7. Ponsonby. 11. Maitl&nd. ) 

4. Best. 8. Somerset. 12. Byng. )' 



Scale of yards. 

i 



13. Dornberg. ( Adami- 

14. Clinton. < Dnplat. 

15. Brun«wick. ( Hafkett - 



* Prince Frederick's force remained at Hal, and took no part in the battle 
of the 18th. The reason for this arrangement (which has been much cavilled 
at) may be best given in the words of Baron Muffling : " The duke had re- 
tired from Quatre Bras in three columns, by three chaussees ; and on the 
evening of the 17th, Prince Frederick of Orange was at Hal, Lord Hill at 
Rraine PAlleud, and the Prince of Orange with the reserve at Mont St. Jean. 
This distribution was necessary, as Napoleon could dispose of these three 
roads for his advance on Brussels. Napoleon on the 17th had pressed on 
by Genappe as far as Rossomme. On the two other roads no enemy had yet 



370 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

On the opposite heights the French army was drawn up in 
two general lines, with the entire force of the Imperial Guards, 
cavalry as well as infantry, in rear of the centre, as a reserve. 

The first line of the French army was formed of the two corps 
commanded by Count d'Erlon and Count Reille. D'Erlon's 
corps was on the right, that is, eastward of the Charleroi road, 
and consisted of four divisions of infantry under Generals Du- 
rette, Marcognet, Alix, and Donzelot, and of one division of light 
cavalry under General Jaquinot. Count Reille's corps formed 
the left or western wing, and was formed of Bachelu's, Foy's, 
and Jerome Bonaparte's divisions of infantry and of Pire's 
division of cavalry. The right wing of the second general 
French line was formed of Milhaud's corps, consisting of two 
divisions of heavy cavalry. The left wing of this line was 
formed by Kellermann's cavalry corps, also in two divisions. 
Thus each of the corps of infantry that composed the first line 
had a corps of cavalry behind it ; but the second line consisted 
also of Lobau's corps of infantry and Domont and Subervie's 
divisions of light cavalry ; these three bodies of troops being 
drawn up on either side of La Belle Alliance, and forming the 
centre of the second line. The third, or reserve, line had its 
centre composed of the infantry of the Imperial Guard. Two 
regiments of grenadiers and two of chasseurs formed the foot 
of the Old Guard under General Friant. The Middle Guard, 
under Count Morand, was similarly composed ; while two regi- 



shown himself. On the 18th the offensive was taken by Napoleon on its 
greatest, scale, but still the Nivelles road was not overstepped by his left 
wing. These circumstances made it possible to draw Prince Frederick to 
the army, which would certainly have been done if entirely new circum- 
stances had not arisen. The duke had, twenty-four hours before, pledged 
himself to accept a battle at Mont St. Jean if Blueher would assist him there 
with one corps of 25.000 men. This being promised, the duke was taking 
hi- measures for defence, when he learned that, in addition to the one corps 
promised, Bliicher was actually already on the march with his whole force, 
to break in by Planchenoit on Napoleon's flank and rear. If three corps 
of the Prussian army should penetrate by the unguarded plateau of Ros- 
somme, which was not improbable, Napoleon would be thrust from his line 
of retreat by Genappe, and might possibly lose even that by Nivelles. In 
this ease Prince Frederick, with his 18,000 men (who might be accounted 
superfluous at Mont St. Jean), misrht have rendered the most essential ser- 
vice." See Muffling, p. 246, and the Quarterly Review, No. 178. It is also 
worthy of observation that Napoleon actually detached a force of 2000 cav- 
alry to threaten Hal, though they returned to the main French army during 
the night of the 17th. See "Victoires et Conquetes des Fram^ais," vol. 
xxiv., p. 186. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 371 

merits of voltigeurs and two of tirailleurs, under Duhesme, con- 
stituted the Young Guard. The chasseurs and lancers of the 
Guard were on the right of the infantry, under Lefebvre Des- 
nouettes ; and the grenadiers and dragoons of the Guards, under 
Guyot, were on the left. All the French corps comprised, be- 
sides their cavalry and infantry regiments, strong batteries of 
horse artillery ; and Napoleon's numerical superiority in guns 
was of deep importance throughout the action. 

Besides the leading generals who have been mentioned as 
commanding particular corps, Ney and Soult were present, and 
acted as the emperor's lieutenants in the battle. 

English military critics have highly eulogized the admirable 
arrangement which Napoleon made of his forces of each arm, 
so as to give him the most ample means of sustaining, by an 
immediate and sufficient support, any attack, from whatever 
point he might direct it ; and of drawing promptly together a 
strong force, to resist any attack that might be made on himself 
in any part of the field.* When his troops were all arrayed, 
he rode along the lines, receiving everywhere the most enthu- 
siastic cheers from his men, of whose entire devotion to him 
his assurance was now doubly sure. On the northern side of 
the valley the duke's army was also drawn up, and ready to 
meet the menaced attack. 

Wellington had caused, on the preceding night, every brigade 
and corps to take up its station on or near the part of the ground 
which it was intended to hold in the coming battle. He had 
slept a few hours at his headquarters in the village of Waterloo; 
and rising on the 18th, while it was yet deep night, he wrote 
several letters to the Governor of Antwerp, to the English Min- 
ister at Brussels, and other official personages, in which he ex- 
pressed his confidence that all would go well ; but, " as it was 
necessary to provide against serious losses should any accident 
occur," he gave a series of judicious orders for what should be 
done in the rear of the army in the event of the battle going 
against the Allies. He also, before he left the village of Water- 
loo, saw to the distribution of the reserves of ammunition which 
had been parked there, so that supplies should be readily for- 
warded to every part of the line of battle where they might be 
required. The duke, also, personally inspected the arrange- 
ments that had been made for receiving the wounded, and pro- 
viding temporary hospitals in the houses in the rear of the army. 

* Siborne, vol. i., p. 376. 



3*72 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

Then, mounting a favorite charger, a small thorough-bred chest- 
nut horse, named " Copenhagen," Wellington rode forward to 
the range of hills where his men were posted. Accompanied 
by his staff and by the Prussian General Muffling, he rode along 
his lines, carefully inspecting all the details of his position. 
Hougoumont was the object of his special attention. He rode 
down to the southeastern extremity of its enclosures, and, after 
having examined the nearest French troops, he made some 
changes in the disposition of his own men who were to defend 
that important post. 

Having given his final orders about Hougoumont, the duke 
galloped back to the high ground in the right centre of his posi- 
tion ; and, halting there, sat watching the enemy on the opposite 
heights, and conversing with his staff with that cheerful serenity 
which was ever his characteristic in the hour of battle. 

Not all brave men are thus gifted ; and many a glance of 
anxious excitement must have been cast across the valley that 
separated the two hosts during the protracted pause which en- 
sued between the completion of Napoleon's preparations for 
attack and the actual commencement of the contest. It was, 
indeed, an awful calm before the coming storm, when armed 
myriads stood gazing on their armed foes, scanning their num- 
ber, their array, their probable powers of resistance and destruc- 
tion, and listening with throbbing hearts for the momentarily 
expected note of death ; while visions of victory and glory came 
thronging on each soldier's high-strung brain, not unmingled 
with recollections of the home which his fall might soon leave 
desolate, nor without shrinking nature sometimes prompting the 
cold thought that in a few moments he might be writhing in 
agony, or lie a trampled and mangled mass of clay on the grass 
now waving so freshly and purely before him. 

Such thoughts will arise in human breasts, though the brave 
man soon silences " the child within us that trembles before 
death," * and nerves himself for the coming struggle by the 
mental preparation which Xenophon has finely called " the sol- 
dier's arraying his own soul for battle." \ Well, too, may we 
hope and believe that many a spirit sought aid from a higher 
and holier source ; and that many a fervent, though silent, 
prayer arose on that Sabbath morn (the battle of Waterloo was 
fought on a Sunday) to the Lord of Sabaoth, the God of Bat- 

* See Plato, " Phaedon," c. 60 ; and Grote's " History of Greece," vol. viii., 
p. 656. 

f " Hellenica," lib. vii., c. v., s. 22. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 373 

ties, from the ranks whence so many thousands were about to 
appear that day before his judgment-seat. 

Not only to those who were thus present as spectators and 
actors in the dread drama, but to all Europe, the decisive con- 
test then impending between the rival French and English na- 
tions, each under its chosen chief, was the object of exciting 
interest and deepest solicitude. " Never, indeed, had two such 
generals as the Duke of Wellington and the Emperor Napoleon 
encountered since the day when Scipio and Hannibal met at 
Zama." * 

The two great champions who now confronted each other 
were equals in years, and each had entered the military profes- 
sion at the same early age. The more conspicuous stage on 
which the French general's youthful genius was displayed, his 
heritage of the whole military power of the French Republic, 
the position on which for years he was elevated as sovereign 
head of an empire surpassing that of Charlemagne, and the daz- 
zling results of his victories, which made and unmade kings, had 
given him a formidable pre-eminence in the eyes of mankind. 
Military men spoke with justly rapturous admiration of the 
brilliancy of his first Italian campaigns, when he broke through 
the pedantry of traditional tactics, and with a small but prompt- 
ly wielded force shattered army after army of the Austrians, 
conquered provinces and capitals, dictated treaties, and annihi- 
lated or created states. The iniquity of his Egyptian expedition 
was too often forgotten in contemplating the skill and boldness 
with which he destroyed the Mameluke cavalry at the Pyramids, 
and the Turkish infantry at Aboukir. None could forget the 
marvellous passage of the Alps in 1800, or the victory of Ma- 
rengo, which wrested Italy back from Austria, and destroyed the 
fruit of twenty victories which the enemies of France had 
gained over her in the absence of her favorite chief. Even 
higher seemed the glories of his German campaigns, the tri- 
umphs of Ulm, of Austerlitz, of Jena, of Wagram. Napoleon's 
disasters in Russia, in 1812, were imputed by his admirers to the 
elements; his reverses in Germany, in 1813, were attributed by 
them to treachery ; and even those two calamitous years had 
been signalized by his victories at Borodino, at Lutzen, at Baut- 
zen, at Dresden, and at Hanau. His last campaign, in the early 
months of 1814, was rightly cited as the most splendid exhibi- 
tion of his military genius, when, with a far inferior army, he 

* See supra, p. 85. 



374 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

long checked and frequently defeated the vast hosts that were 
poured upon France. His followers fondly hoped that the cam- 
paign of 1815 would open with another "week of miracles," 
like that which had seen his victories at Montmirail and Monte- 
reau. The laurel of Lignv was even now fresh upon his brows. 
Blucher had not stood before him ; and who was the adversary 
that now should bar the emperor's way ? 

That adversary had already overthrown the emperor's best gen- 
erals and the emperor's best armies, and, like Napoleon himself, 
had achieved a reputation in more than European wars. Wel- 
lington was illustrious as the destroyer of the Mahratta power, as 
the liberator of Portugal and Spain, and the successful invader of 
Southern France. In early youth he had held high command in 
India; and had displayed eminent skill in planning and combin- 
ing movements, and unrivalled celerity and boldness in execu- 
tion. On his return to Europe, several years passed away before 
any fitting opportunity was accorded for the exercise of his genius. 
In this important respect, Wellington, as a subject, and Napoleon, 
as a sovereign, were far differently situated. At length his ap- 
pointment to the command in the Spanish Peninsula gave him the 
means of showing Europe that England had a general who could 
revive the glories of Crecy, of Poitiers, of Agincourt, of Blenheim, 
and of Ramilies. At the head of forces always numerically far in- 
ferior to the armies with which Napoleon deluged the Peninsula ; 
thwarted by jealous and incompetent allies ; ill-supported by 
friends, and assailed by factious enemies at home, Wellington 
maintained the war for seven years, unstained by any serious re- 
verse, and marked by victory in thirteen pitched battles, at Vi- 
miera, the Douro, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes de Onoro, Salaman- 
ca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, the Bidassoa, the Nive, the Nivelle, 
Orthes, and Toulouse. Junot, Victor, Massena, Ney, Marmont, 
and Jourdain — marshals whose names were the terror of Conti- 
nental Europe — had been baffled by his skill and smitten down 
by his energy, while he liberated the kingdoms of the Peninsula 
from them and their imperial master. In vain did Napoleon at 
last despatch Soult, the ablest of his lieutenants, to turn the tide 
of Wellington's success, and defend France against the English 
invader. Wellington met Soult's manoeuvres with superior skill, 
and his boldness with superior vigor. When Napoleon's first 
abdication, in 1814, suspended hostilities, Wellington was mas- 
ter of the fairest districts of Southern France ; and had under 
him a veteran army, with which (to use his own expressive 
phrase) " he felt he could have gone anywhere and done any- 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 375 

thing." The fortune of war had hitherto kept separate the 
orbits in which Napoleon and he had moved. Now, on the ever- 
memorable 18th of June, 1815, they met at last. 

It is, indeed, remarkable that Napoleon, during his numerous 
campaigns in Spain as well as other countries, not only never 
encountered the Duke of Wellington before the day of Water- 
loo, but that he was never until then personally engaged with 
British troops, except at the siege of Toulon, in 1*793, which was 
the very first incident of his military career. Many, however, 
of the French generals who were with him in 1815 knew well, 
by sharp experience, what English soldiers were, and what the 
leader was who now headed them. Ney, Foy, and other officers 
who had served in the Peninsula, warned Napoleon that he would 
find the English infantry " very devils in fight." The emperor, 
however, persisted in employing the old system of attack, with 
which the French generals often succeeded against Continental 
troops, but which had always failed against the English in the 
Peninsula. He adhered to his usual tactics of employing the 
order of the column ; a mode of attack probably favored by him 
(as Sir Walter Scott remarks) on account of his faith in the ex- 
treme valor of the French officers by whom the column was 
headed. It is a threatening formation, well calculated to shake 
the firmness of ordinary foes ; but which, when steadily met, as 
the English have met it, by heavy volleys of musketry from an 
extended line, followed up by a resolute bayonet charge, has al- 
ways resulted in disaster to the assailants.* 

It was approaching noon before the action commenced. Na- 
poleon, in his " Memoirs," gives as the reason for this delay the 
miry state of the ground through the heavy rain of the preced- 
ing night and day, which rendered it impossible for cavalry or 
artillery to manoeuvre on it till a few hours of dry weather had 
given it its natural consistency. It has been supposed, also, that 
he trusted to the effect which the sight of the imposing array of 
his own forces was likely to produce on the part of the allied 
army. The Belgian regiments had been tampered with ; and 
Napoleon had well-founded hopes of seeing them quit the Duke 
of Wellington in a body, and range themselves under his own 
eagles. The duke, however, who knew and did not trust them, 

* See especially Sir W. Napier's glorious pictures of the battles of Busaco 
and Albuera. The theoretical advantages of the attack in column, and its 
peculiar fitness for a French army, are set forth in the Chevalier Folard's 
"Traite de la Colonne," prefixed to the first volume of his "Polybius." See 
also the preface to his sixth volume. 



376 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. > 

had guarded against the risk of this, by breaking up the corps of 
Belgians, and distributing them in separate regiments among 
troops on whom he could rely.* 

At last, at about half-past eleven o'clock, Napoleon began the 
battle by directing a powerful force from his left wing under his 
brother, Prince Jerome, to attack Hougoumont. Column after 
column of the French now descended from the west of the south- 
ern heights, and assailed that post with fiery valor, which was 
encountered with the most determined bravery. The French 
won the copse round the house, but a party of the British 
Guards held the house itself throughout the day. The whole 
of Byng's brigade was required to man this hotly contested 
post. Amid shell and shot, and the blazing fragments of part 
of the buildings, this obstinate contest was continued. But still 
the English were firm in Hougoumont ; though the French occa- 
sionally moved forward in such numbers as enabled them to sur- 
round and mask it with part of their troops from their left wing, 
while others pressed onward up the slope, and assailed the 
British right. 

The cannonade, which commenced at first between the British 
right and the French left, in consequence of the attack on Hou- 
goumont, soon became general along both lines ; and, about one 
o'clock, Napoleon directed a grand attack to be made under 
Marshal Ney upon the centre and left wing of the allied army. 
For this purpose four columns of infantry, amounting to about 
eighteen thousand men, were collected, supported by a strong 
division of cavalry under the celebrated Kellermann ; and seventy- 
four guns were brought forward ready to be posted on the ridge 
of a little undulation of the ground in the interval between the 
two principal chains of heights, so as to bring their fire to bear 
on the duke's line at a range of about seven hundred yards. By 
the combined assault of these formidable forces, led on by Ney, 
"the bravest of the brave," Napoleon hoped to force the left 
centre of the British position, to take La Haye Sainte, and then, 
pressing forward, to occupy also the farm of Mont St. Jean. He 
then could cut the mass of Wellington's troops off from their 
line of retreat upon Brussels, and from their own left, and also 
completely sever them from any Prussian troops that might be 
approaching. 

The columns destined for this great and decisive operation 
descended majestically from the French line of hills, and gained 

* Siborne, vol. i., p. 3*73. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 377 

the ridge of the intervening eminence, on which the batteries 
that supported them were now ranged. As the columns de- 
scended again from this eminence, the seventy -four guns opened 
over their heads with terrible effect upon the troops of the Allies 
that were stationed on the heights to the left of the Charleroi 
road. One of the French columns kept to the east, and attacked 
the extreme left of the Allies ; the other three continued to move 
rapidly forwards upon the left centre of the allied position. The 
front line of the Allies here was composed of Bylandt's brigade 
of Dutch and Belgians. As the French columns moved up the 
southward slope of the height on which the Dutch and Belgians 
stood, and the skirmishers in advance began to open their fire, 
Bylandt's entire brigade turned and fled in disgraceful and dis- 
orderly panic ; but there were men more worthy of the name 
behind. 

In this part of the second line of the allies were posted Pack 
and Kempt's brigades of English infantry, which had suffered 
severely at Quatre Bras. But Picton was here as general of di- 
vision, and not even Ney himself surpassed in resolute bravery 
that stern and fiery spirit. Picton brought his two brigades 
forward, side by side, in a thin, two-deep line. Thus joined 
together, they were not three thousand strong. With these 
Picton had to make head against the three victorious French 
columns, upwards of four times that strength, and who, encour- 
aged by the easy rout of the Dutch and Belgians, now came 
confidently over the ridge of the hill. The British infantry 
stood firm ; and as the French halted and began to deploy into 
line, Picton seized the critical moment. He shouted in his sten- 
torian voice to Kempt's brigade : " A volley, and then charge !" 
At a distance of less than thirty yards that volley was poured 
upon the devoted first sections of the nearest column ; and then, 
with a fierce hurrah, the British dashed in with the bayonet. 
Picton was shot dead as he rushed forward, but his men pushed 
on with the cold steel. The French reeled back in confusion. 
Pack's infantry had checked the other two columns, and down 
came a whirlwind of British horse on the whole mass, sending 
them staggering from the crest of the hill, and cutting them 
down by whole battalions. Ponsonby's brigade of heavy cav- 
alry (the Union Brigade, as it was called, from its being made 
up of the British Royals, the Scots Greys, and the Irish Innis- 
killings) did this good service. On went the horsemen amid the 
wrecks of the French columns, capturing two eagles and two 
thousand prisoners ; onward still they galloped, and sabred the 



378 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

artillerymen of Ney's seventy-four advanced guns ; then sever- 
ing the traces, and cutting the throats of the artillery horses, 
they rendered these guns totally useless to the French through- 
out the remainder of the day. While thus far advanced beyond 
the British position and disordered by success, they were charged 
by a large body of French lancers and driven back with severe 
loss, till Vandeleur's light horse came to their aid, and beat off 
the French lancers in their turn. 

Equally unsuccessful with the advance of the French infantry 
in this grand attack had been the efforts of the French cavalry 
who moved forward in support of it, along the east of the 
Charleroi road. Somerset's cavalry of the English Household 
Brigade had been launched, on the right of Picton's division, 
against the French horse, at the same time that the English 
Union Brigade of heavy horse charged the French infantry col- 
umns on the left. 

Somerset's brigade was formed of the Life Guards, the Blues, 
and the Dragoon Guards. The hostile cavalry, which Kellermann 
led forward, consisted chiefly of cuirassiers. This steel-clad 
mass of French horsemen rode down some companies of German 
infantry, near La Haye Sainte, and, flushed with success, they 
bounded onward to the ridge of the British position. The Eng- 
lish Household Brigade, led on by the Earl of Uxbridge in per- 
son, spurred forward to the encounter, and in an instant the two 
adverse lines of strong swordsmen, on their strong steeds, dashed 
furiously together. A desperate and sanguinary hand-to-hand 
fight ensued, in which the physical superiority of the Anglo- 
Saxons, guided by equal skill, and animated with equal valor, 
was made decisively manifest. Back went the chosen cavalry of 
France ; and after them, in hot pursuit, spurred the English 
Guards. They went forward as far and as fiercely as their com- 
rades of the Union Brigade ; and, like them, the Household cav- 
alry suffered severely before they regained the British position, 
after their magnificent charge and adventurous pursuit. 

Napoleon's grand effort to break the English left centre had 
thus completely failed ; and his right wing was seriously weak- 
ened by the heavy loss which it had sustained. Hougoumont 
was still being assailed, and was still successfully resisting. 
Troops were now beginning to appear at the edge of the hori- 
zon on Napoleon's right, which he too well knew to be Prussian, 
though he endeavored to persuade his followers that they were 
Grouchy's men coming to their aid. 

Grouchy was, in fact, now engaged at Wavre with his whole 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 379 

force against Thielman's single Prussian corps, while the other 
three corps of the Prussian army were moving without opposi- 
tion, save from the difficulties of the ground, upon Waterloo. 
Grouchy believed, on the 17th, and caused Napoleon to believe, 
that the Prussian army was retreating by lines of march re- 
mote from Waterloo upon Namur and Maestricht. Napoleon 
learned only on the 18th that there were Prussians in Wavre, 
and felt jealous about the security of his own right. He accord- 
ingly, before he attacked the English, sent Grouchy orders to 
engage the Prussians at Wavre without delay, and to approach 
the main French army, so as to unite his communication with the 
emperor'' s. Grouchy entirely neglected this last part of his instruc- 
tions ; and in attacking the Prussians whom he found at Wavre, 
he spread his force more and more towards his right, that is to 
say, in the direction most remote from Napoleon. He thus knew 
nothing of Bliicher's and Bulow's flank march upon Waterloo 
till six in the evening of the 18th, when he received a note 
which Soult, by Napoleon's orders, had sent off from the field of 
battle at Waterloo at one o'clock, to inform Grouchy that Bulow 
was coming over the heights of St. Lambert, on the emperor's 
right flank, and directing Grouchy to approach and join the 
main army instantly, and crush Bulow en flagrant delit. It was 
then too late for Grouchy to obey ; but it is remarkable that as 
early as noon on the 18th, and while Grouchy had not proceeded 
as far as Wavre, he and his suite heard the sound of heavy can- 
nonading in the direction of Planchenoit and Mont St. Jean. 
General Gerard, who was with Grouchy, implored him to march 
towards the cannonade, and join his operations with those of 
Napoleon, who was evidently engaged with the English. Grouchy 
refused to do so, or even to detach part of his force in that di- 
rection. He said that his instructions were to fight the Prussians 
at Wavre. He marched upon Wavre, and fought for the rest 
of the day with Thielman accordingly, while Bliicher and Bulow 
were attacking the emperor.* 

* I have heard the remark made that Grouchy twice had in his hands the 
power of changing the destinies of Europe, and twice wanted nerve to act : 
first, when he flinched from landing the French army at Bantry Bay in 1*796 
(he was second in command to Hoche, whose ship was blown back by a storm), 
and, secondly, when he failed to lead his whole force from Wavre to the scene 
of decisive conflict at Waterloo. But such were the arrangements of the 
Prussian general that even if Grouchy had marched upon Waterloo, he would 
have been held in check by the nearest Prussian corps, or certainly by the 
two nearest ones, while the rest proceeded to join Wellington. This, however, 
would have diminished the number of Prussians who appeared at Waterloo, 



380 J5ATTLB OF WATERLOO. 

Napoleon had witnessed with bitter disappointment the rout 
of his troops — foot, horse, and artillery — which attacked the 
left centre of the English, and the obstinate resistance which the 
garrison of Hougoumont opposed to all the exertions of his left 
wing. He now caused the batteries along the line of high 
ground held by him to be strengthened, and for some time an 
unremitting and most destructive cannonade raged across the 
valley, to the partial cessation of other conflict. But the supe- 
rior fire of the French artillery, though it weakened, could not 
break the British line, and more close and summary measures 
were requisite. 

It was now about half -past three o'clock ; and though Wel- 
lington's army had suffered severely by the unremitting cannon- 
ade, and in the late desperate encounter, no part of the British 
position had been forced. Napoleon determined therefore to 
try what effect he could produce on the British centre and right 
by charges of his splendid cavalry, brought on in such force 
that the duke's cavalry could not check them. Fresh troops 
were at the same time sent to assail La Haye Sainte and Hou- 
goumont, the possession of these posts being the emperor's un- 
ceasing object. Squadron after squadron of the French cuiras- 
siers accordingly ascended the slopes on the duke's right, and 
rode forward with dauntless courage against the batteries of the 
British artillery in that part of the field. The artillerymen were 
driven from their guns, and the cuirassiers cheered loudly at 
their supposed triumph. But the duke had formed his infantry 
in squares, and the cuirassiers charged in vain against the im- 
penetrable hedges of bayonets, while the fire from the inner 
ranks of the squares told with terrible effect on their squadrons. 

and (what is still more important) would have kept them back to a later hour. 
See Siborne, vol. i., p. 323, and Gleig, p. 142. 

There are some very valuable remarks on this subject in the 70th No. of 
the Quarterly in an article on the " Life of Bliicher," usually attributed to 
Sir Francis Head. The Prussian writer, General Clausewitz, is there cited as 
" expressing a positive opinion, in which every military critic but a French- 
man must concur, that, even had the whole of Grouchy's force been at Napo- 
leon's disposal, the duke had nothing to fear pending Bliicher's arrival. 

" The duke is often talked of as having exhausted his reserves in the ac- 
tion. This is another gross error, which Clausewitz has thoroughly disposed 
of (p. 125). He enumerates the tenth British brigade, the division of Chasse, 
and the cavalry of Collaert as having been little or not at all engaged ; and 
he might have also added two brigades of light cavalry." The fact, also, that 
Wellington did not at any part of the day order up Prince Frederick's corps 
from Hal is a conclusive proof that the duke was not so distressed as some 
writers have represented. Hal is not ten miles from the field of Waterloo. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 381 

Time after time they rode forward with invariably the same re- 
sult ; and as they receded from each attack the British artillery- 
men rushed forward from the centres of the squares, where they 
had taken refuge, and plied their guns on the retiring horse- 
men.* Nearly the whole of Napoleon's magnificent body of 

* "On came the whirlwind — like the last 
But fiercest sweep of tempest blast — 
On came the whirlwind ; steel-gleams broke 
Like lightning through the rolling smoke; 

The war was waked anew: 
Three hundred cannon-mouths roared loud, 
And from their throats, with flash and cloud, 

Their showers of iron threw. 
Beneath their fire, in full career, 
Rushed on the ponderous cuirassier; 
The lancer couched his ruthless spear, 
And, hurrying as to havoc near, 

The cohorts' eagles flew. 
In one dark torrent, broad and strong, 
The advancing onset rolled along, 
Forth harbingered by fierce acclaim, 
That, from the shroud of smoke and flame, 
Pealed wildly the imperial name. 

"But on the British heart were lost 
The terrors of the charging host; 
For not an eye the storm that viewed 
Changed its proud glance of fortitude, 
Nor was one forward footstep stayed, 
As dropped the dying and the dead. 
Fast as their ranks the thunders tear, 
Fast they renewed each serried square; 
And on the wounded and the slain 
Closed their diminished files again, 
Till from their line, scarce spears' lengths three, 
Emerging from the smoke they see 
Helmet, and plume, and panoply : 

Then waked their fire at once! 
Each musketeer's revolving knell 
As fast, as regularly fell 
As when they practise to display 
Their discipline on festal day. 

Then down went helm and lance, 
Down were the eagle banners sent, 
Down reeling steeds and riders went, 
Corslets were pierced, and pennons rent; 

And, to augment the fray, 
Wheeled full against their staggering flanks, 
The English horsemen's foaming ranks 

Forced their resistless wav. 



382 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

heavy cavalry was destroyed in these fruitless attempts upon the 
British right. But in another part of the field fortune favored 
him for a time. Two French columns of infantry from Donze- 
lot's division took La Haye Sainte between six and seven o'clock, 
and the means were now given for organizing another formida- 
ble attack on the centre of the Allies. 

There was no time to be lost — Blticher and Bulow were be- 
ginning to press hard upon the French right. As early as five 
o'clock, Napoleon had been obliged to detach Lobau's infantry 
and Domont's horse to check these new enemies. They suc- 
ceeded in doing so for a time ; but as larger numbers of the 
Prussians came on the field, they turned Lobau's right flank, 
and sent a strong force to seize the village of Planchenoit, which, 
it will be remembered, lay in the rear of the French right. 

The design of the Allies was not merely to prevent Napoleon 
from advancing upon Brussels, but to cut off his line of retreat 
and utterly destroy his army. The defence of Planchenoit there- 
fore became absolutely essential for the safety of the French, and 
Napoleon was obliged to send his Young Guard to occupy that 
village, which was accordingly held by them with great gallantry 
against the reiterated assaults of the Prussian left, under Bulow. 
Three times did the Prussians fight their way into Planchenoit, 
and as often did the French drive them out : the contest was 
maintained with the fiercest desperation on both sides, such be- 
ing the animosity between the two nations that quarter was sel- 
dom given or even asked. Other Prussian forces were now ap- 
pearing on the field nearer to the English left ; whom also Napo- 
leon kept in check, by troops detached for that purpose. Thus 
a large part of the French army was now thrown back on a line 
at right angles with the line of that portion which still con- 
fronted and assailed the English position. But this portion was 
now numerically inferior to the force under the Duke of Wei- 
Then to the musket-knell succeeds 
The clash of swords, the neigh of steeds ; 
As plies the smith his clanging trade, 
Against the cuirass rang the blade; 
And while amid their close array 
The well-served cannon rent their way, 
And while amid their scattered band 
Raged the fierce rider's bloody brand, 
Recoiled, in common rout and fear, 
Lancer and guard and cuirassier, 
Horsemen and foot — a mingled host, 
Their leaders fall'n, their standards lost," — Scott, 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 383 

lington, which Napoleon had been assailing throughout the day, 
without gaining any other advantage than the capture of La Haye 
Sainte. It is true that, owing to the gross misconduct of the 
greater part of the Dutch and Belgian troops, the duke was 
obliged to rely exclusively on his English and German soldiers, 
and the ranks of these had been fearfully thinned ; but the sur- 
vivors stood their ground heroically, and opposed a resolute 
front to every forward movement of their enemies. 

On no point of the British line was the pressure more severe 
than on Halkett's brigade in the right centre, which was com- 
posed of battalions of the 30th, the 33d, the 69th, and the 73d 
British regiments. We fortunately can quote from the journal* 
of a brave officer of the 30th a narrative of what took place in 
this part of the field. The late Major Macready served at Wa- 
terloo in the light company of the 30th. The extent of the 
peril and the carnage which Halkett's brigade had to encounter 
may be judged of by the fact that this light company marched 
into the field three officers and fifty-one men, and that at the end 
of the battle they stood one officer and ten men. Major Ma- 
cready's blunt soldierly account of what he actually saw and felt 
gives a far better idea of the terrific scene than can be gained 
from the polished generalizations which the conventional style 
of history requires, or even from the glowing stanzas of the poet. 
During the earlier part of the day Macready and his light com- 
pany were thrown forward as skirmishers in front of the brigade ; 
but when the French cavalry commenced their attacks on the 
British right centre, he and his comrades were ordered back. 
The brave soldier thus himself describes what passed : 

" Before the commencement of this attack our company and 
the grenadiers of the 73d were skirmishing briskly in the low 
ground, covering our guns, and annoying those of the enemy. 
The line of tirailleurs opposed to us was not stronger than our 
own, but on a sudden they were reinforced by numerous bodies, 
and several guns began playing on us with canister. Our poor 
fellows dropped very fast, and Colonel Vigoureux, Rumley, and 
Pratt were carried off badly wounded in about two minutes. I 
was now commander of our company. We stood under this 
hurricane of small shot till Halkett sent to order us in, and I 
brought away about a third of the light bobs ; the rest were 
killed or wounded, and 1 really wonder how one of them escaped. 

* This excellent journal was published in the " United Service Magazine " 
during the year 1852, 



384 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

As our bugler was killed, I shouted and made signals to move 
by the left, in order to avoid the fire of our guns, and to put as 
good a face upon the business as possible. 

" When I reached Lloyd's abandoned guns, I stood near them 
for about a minute to contemplate the scene : it was grand be- 
yond description. Hougoumont and its wood sent up a broad 
flame through the dark masses of smoke that overhung the 
field ; beneath this cloud the French were indistinctly visible. 
Here a waving mass of long red feathers could be seen ; there, 
gleams as from a sheet of steel showed that the cuirassiers were 
moving ; 400 cannon were belching forth fire and death on every 
side ; the roaring and shouting were indistinguishably commixed 
— together they gave me an idea of a laboring volcano. Bodies 
of infantry and cavalry were pouring down on us, and it was 
time to leave contemplation, so I moved towards our columns, 
which were standing up in square. Our regiment and 7 3d 
formed one, and 33d and 69th another; to our right beyond 
them were the Guards, and on our left the Hanoverians and 
German Legion of our division. As I entered the rear face 
of our square I had to step over a body, and, looking down, 
recognized Harry Beere, an officer of our grenadiers, who about 
an hour before shook hands with me, laughing, as I left the col- 
umns. I was on the usual terms of military intimacy with poor 
Harry — that is to say, if either of us had died a natural death, 
the other would have pitied him as a good fellow, and smiled at 
his neighbor as he congratulated him on the step ; but seeing 
his herculean frame and animated countenance thus suddenly 
stiff and motionless before me (I know not whence the feeling 
could originate, for I had just seen my dearest friend drop, 
almost with indifference), the tears started in my eyes as I 
sighed out, ' Poor Harry !' The tear was not dry on my cheek 
when poor Harry was no longer thought of. In a few minutes 
after, the enemy's cavalry galloped up and crowned the crest of 
our position. Our guns were abandoned, and they formed be- 
tween the two brigades, about a hundred paces in our front. 
Their first charge was magnificent. As soon as they quickened 
their trot into a gallop, the cuirassiers bent their heads so that 
the peaks of their helmets looked like vizors, and they seemed 
cased in armor from the plume to the saddle. Not a shot was 
fired till they were within thirty yards, when the word was 
given, and our men fired away at them. The effect was mag- 
ical. Through the smoke we could see helmets falling, cavaliers 
starting from their seats with convulsive springs as they re- 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 385 

ceived our balls, horses plunging and rearing in the agonies of 
fright and pain, and crowds of the soldiery dismounted, part of 
the squadron in retreat, but the more daring remainder backing 
their horses to force them on our bayonets. Our fire soon dis- 
posed of these gentlemen. The main body re-formed in our 
front, and rapidly and gallantly repeated their attacks. In 
fact, from this time (about four o'clock) till near six, we had a 
constant repetition of these brave but unavailing charges. There 
was no difficulty in repulsing them, but our ammunition de- 
creased alarmingly. At length an artillery wagon galloped up, 
emptied two or three casks of cartridges into the square, and 
we were all comfortable. 

" The best cavalry is contemptible to a steady and well-sup- 
plied infantry regiment ; even our men saw this, and began to 
pity the useless perseverance of their assailants, and, as they 
advanced, would growl out, ' Here come these fools again !' 
One of their superior officers tried a ruse de guerre, by advanc- 
ing and dropping his sword, as though he surrendered ; some of 
us were deceived by him, but Halkett ordered the men to fire, 
and he coolly retired, saluting us. Their devotion was invinci- 
ble. One officer whom we had taken prisoner was asked what 
force Napoleon might have in the field, and replied with a smile 
of mingled derision and threatening, ' Vous verrez bientot sa 
force, messieurs !' A private cuirassier was wounded and 
dragged into the square ; his only cry was, ' Tuez done, tuez, 
tuez moi, soldats !' and as one of our men dropped dead close 
to him, he seized his bayonet, and forced it into his own neck ; 
but this not despatching him, he raised up his cuirass, and, 
plunging the bayonet into his stomach, kept working it about 
till he ceased to breathe. 

"Though we constantly thrashed our steel-clad opponents, 
we found more troublesome customers in the round shot and 
grape, which all this time played on us with terrible effect, and 
fully avenged the cuirassiers. Often as the volleys created 
openings in our square would the cavalry dash on, but they 
were uniformly unsuccessful. A regiment on our right seemed 
sadly disconcerted, and at one moment was in considerable con- 
fusion. Halkett rode out to them, and, seizing their color, 
waved it over his head, and restored them to something like 
order, though not before his horse was shot under him. At the 
height of their unsteadiness we got the order to ' right face ' to 
move to their assistance ; some of the men mistook it for ' right 
about face,' and faced accordingly, when old Major M'Laine, 



386 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

73d, called out, ' No, my boys, it's " right face ;" you'll never 
hear the right about as long as a French bayonet is in front of 
you !' In a few moments he was mortally wounded. A regi- 
ment of light dragoons, by their facings either the 16th or 
23d, came up to our left and charged the cuirassiers. We cheered 
each other as they passed us ; they did all they could, but were 
obliged to retire after a few minutes at the sabre. A body of 
Belgian cavalry advanced for the same purpose, but on passing 
our square they stopped short. Our noble Halkett rode out to 
them and offered to charge at their head ; it was of no use ; the 
Prince of Orange came up and exhorted them to do their duty, 
but in vain. They hesitated till a few shots whizzed through 
them, when they turned about, and galloped like fury, or, 
rather, like fear. As they passed the right face of our square 
the men, irritated by their rascally conduct, unanimously took 
up their pieces and fired a volley into them, and ' many a good 
fellow was destroyed so cowardly.' 

" The enemy's cavalry were by this time nearly disposed of, 
and as they had discovered the inutility of their charges, they 
commenced annoying us by a spirited and well-directed carbine 
fire. While we were employed in this manner it was impossi- 
ble to see farther than the columns on our right and left, but I 
imagine most of the army were similarly situated : all the Brit- 
ish and Germans were doing their duty. About six o'clock I 
perceived some artillery trotting up our hill, which I knew by 
their caps to belong to the Imperial Guard. I had hardly men- 
tioned this to a brother officer when two guns unlimbered with- 
in seventy paces of us, and, by their first discharge of grape, 
blew seven men into the centre of the square. They immedi- 
ately reloaded, and kept up a constant and destructive fire. It 
was noble to see our fellows fill up the gaps after every dis- 
charge. I was much distressed at this moment ; having ordered 
up three of my light bobs, they had hardly taken their station 
when two of them fell, horribly lacerated. One of them looked 
up in my face and uttered a sort of reproachful groan, and I in- 
voluntarily exclaimed, 1 1 couldn't help it.' We would willingly 
have charged these guns, but, had we deployed, the cavalry 
that flanked them would have made an example -of us. 

" The ' vivida vis animi ' — the glow which fires one upon en- 
tering into action — had ceased ; it was now to be seen which 
side had most bottom, and would stand killing longest. The 
duke visited us frequently at this momentous period ; he was 
coolness personified. As he crossed the rear face of our square 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 387 

a shell fell amongst our grenadiers, and he checked his horse to 
see its effect. Some men were blown to pieces by the explosion, 
and he merely stirred the rein of his charger, apparently as lit- 
tle concerned at their fate as at his own danger. No leader 
ever possessed so fully the confidence of his soldiery : wherever 
he appeared, a murmur of ' Silence ! Stand to your front ! Here's 
the duke !' was heard through the column, and then all was 
steady as on a parade. His aides-de-camp, Colonels Canning 
and Gordon, fell near our square, and the former died within it. 
As he came near us late in the evening, Halkett rode out to him 
and represented our weak state, begging his Grace to afford us 
a little support. ' It's impossible, Halkett,' said he. And our gen- 
eral replied, ' If so, sir, you may depend on the brigade to a man !' " 

All accounts of the battle show that the duke was ever pres- 
ent at each spot where danger seemed the most pressing ; in- 
spiriting his men by a few homely and good-humored words; 
and restraining their impatience to be led forward to attack in 
their turn. " Hard pounding this, gentlemen : we will try who 
can pound the longest," was his remark to a battalion, on which 
the storm from the French guns was pouring with peculiar fury. 
Riding up to one of the squares, which had been dreadfully 
weakened, and against which a fresh attack of French cavalry 
was coming, he called to them : " Stand firm, my lads ; what will 
they say of this in England ?" As he rode along another part 
of the line where the men had for some time been falling fast 
beneath the enemy's cannonade, without having any close fight- 
ing, a murmur reached his ear of natural eagerness to advance 
and do something more than stand still to be shot at. The 
duke called to them : " Wait a little longer, my lads, and you 
shall have your wish." The men were instantly satisfied and 
steady. It was, indeed, indispensable for the duke to bide his 
time. The premature movement of a single corps down from 
the British line of heights would have endangered the whole 
position, and have probably made Waterloo a second Hastings. 

But the duke inspired all under him with his own spirit of 
patient firmness. When other generals besides Halkett sent to 
him begging for reinforcements, or for leave to withdraw corps 
which were reduced to skeletons, the answer was the same : " It 
is impossible ; you must hold your ground to the last man, and 
all will be well." He gave a similar reply to some of his staff, 
who asked instructions from him, so that, in the event of his 
falling, his successor might follow out his plan. He answered, 
" My plan is simply to stand my ground here to the last man." 



388 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

His personal danger was indeed imminent throughout the day ; 
and though he escaped without injury to himself or horse, one 
only of his numerous staff was equally fortunate.* 

Napoleon had stationed himself during the battle on a little 
hillock near La Belle Alliance, in the centre of the French posi- 
tion. Here he was seated, with a large table from the neigh- 
boring farm-house before him, on which maps and plans were 
spread ; and thence with his telescope he surveyed the various 
points of the field. Soult watched his orders close at his left 
hand, and his staff was grouped on horseback a few paces in 
the rear.f Here he remained till near the close of the day, pre- 
serving the appearance at least of calmness, except some expres- 
sions of irritation which escaped him, when Ney's attack on the 
British left centre was defeated. But now that the crisis of the 
battle was evidently approaching, he mounted a white Persian 
charger, which he rode in action because the troops easily rec- 
ognized him by the horse's color. He had still the means of 
effecting a retreat. His Old Guard had yet taken no part in the 
action. Under cover of it, he might have withdrawn his shat- 
tered forces and retired upon the French frontier. But this 
would only have given the English and Prussians the oppor- 
tunity of completing their junction ; and he knew that other 

*"As far as the French accounts would lead us to infer, it appears that 
the losses among Napoleon's staff were comparatively trifling. On this sub- 
ject, perhaps, the marked contrast afforded by the following anecdotes, which 
have been related to me on excellent authority, may tend to throw some 
light. At one period of the battle, when the duke was surrounded by 
several of his staff, it was very evident that the group had become the ob- 
ject of the fire of a French battery. The shot fell fast about them, generally 
striking and turning up the ground on which they stood. Their horses be- 
came restive, and ' Copenhagen ' himself so fidgety that the duke, getting 
impatient, and having reasons for remaining on the spot, said to those about 
him, ' Gentlemen, we are rather too close together — better to divide a little.' 
Subsequently, at another point of the line, an officer of artillery came up to 
the duke, and stated that he had a distinct view of Napoleon, attended by his 
staff; that he had the guns of his battery well pointed in that direction, and 
was prepared to fire. His Grace instantly and emphatically exclaimed, 'No! 
no ! I'll not allow it. It is not the business of commanders to be firing upon 
each other.' " — Siborne, vol. ii., p. 263. How different is this from Napoleon's 
conduct at the battle of Dresden, when he personally directed the fire of the 
battery, which, as he thought, killed the Emperor Alexander, and actually 
killed Moreau. 

f "Souvenirs Militaires,"par Col. Lemonnier-Delafosse, p. 407. " Ouvrard, 
who attended Napoleon as chief commissary of the French army on that oc- 
casion, told me that Napoleon was suffering from a complaint which made it 
very painful for him to ride." — Lord Ellesmere, p. 47. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 389 

armies were fast coming up to aid them in a march upon Paris, 
if he should succeed in avoiding an encounter with them, and 
retreating upon the capital. A victory at Waterloo was his only 
alternative from utter ruin, and he determined to employ his 
Guard in one bold stroke more to make that victory his own. 

Between seven and eight o'clock, the infantry of the Old 
Guard was formed into two columns, on the declivity near La 
Belle Alliance. Ney was placed at their head. Napoleon him- 
self rode forward to a spot by which his veterans were to pass ; 
and, as they approached, he raised his arm, and pointed to the 
position of the Allies, as if to tell them that their path lay there. 
They answered with loud cries of " Vive FEmpereur !" and de- 
scended the hill from their own side, into that " valley of the 
shadow of death," while the batteries thundered with redoubled 
vigor over their heads upon the British line. The line of march 
of the columns of the Guard was directed between Hougoumont 
and La Haye Sainte, against the British right centre ; and at the 
same time the French under Donzelot, who had possession of 
La Haye Sainte, commenced a fierce attack upon the British 
centre, a little more to its left. This part of the battle has 
drawn less attention than the celebrated attack of the Old 
Guard ; but it formed the most perilous crisis for the allied 
army ; and if the Young Guard had been there to support Don- 
zelot, instead of being engaged with the Prussians at Planche- 
noit, the consequences to the Allies in that part of the field 
must have been most serious. The French tirailleurs, who were 
posted in clouds in La Haye Sainte, and the sheltered spots 
near it, picked off the artillerymen of the English batteries near 
them ; and, taking advantage of the disabled state of the Eng- 
lish guns, the French brought some field-pieces up to La Haye 
Sainte, and commenced firing grape from them on the infantry 
of the Allies, at a distance of not more than a hundred paces. 
The allied infantry here consisted of some German brigades, 
who were formed in squares, as it was believed that Donzelot 
had cavalry ready behind La Haye Sainte to charge them with 
if they left that order of formation. In this state the Germans 
remained for some time with heroic fortitude, though the grape- 
shot was tearing gaps in their ranks, and the side of one square 
was literally blown away by one tremendous volley which the 
French gunners poured into it. The Prince of Orange in vain 
endeavored to lead some Nassau troops to the aid of the brave 
Germans. The Nassauers would not or could not face the 
French ; and some battalions of Brunswickcrs, whom the Duke 



390 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

of Wellington had ordered up as a reinforcement, at first fell 
back, until the duke in person rallied them, and led them on. 
Having thus barred the farther advance of Donzelot, the duke 
galloped off to the right to head his men who were exposed to 
the attack of the Imperial Guard. He had saved one part of 
his centre from being routed; but the French had gained 
ground and kept it; and the pressure on the Allied line in front 
of La Haye Sainte was fearfully severe, until it was relieved by 
the decisive success which the British in the right centre 
achieved over the columns of the Guard. 

The British troops on the crest of that part of the position, 
which the first column of Napoleon's Guards assailed, were 
Maitland's brigade of British Guards, having Adams's brigade 
(which had been brought forward during the action) on their 
right. Maitland's men were lying down, in order to avoid as 
far as possible the destructive effect of the French artillery, 
which kept up an unremitting fire from the opposite heights, 
until the first column of the Imperial Guard had advanced so 
far up the slope towards the British position that any further 
firing of the French artillerymen would have endangered their 
own comrades. Meanwhile the British guns were not idle ; but 
shot and shell ploughed fast through the ranks of the stately 
array of veterans that still moved imposingly on. Several of 
the French superior officers were at its head. Ney's horse was 
shot under him, but he still led the way on foot, sword in hand. 
The front of the massive column now was on the ridge of the 
hill. To their surprise they saw no troops before them. All 
they could discern through the smoke was a small band of 
mounted officers. One of them was the duke himself. The 
French advanced to about fifty yards from where the British 
guards were lying down, when the voice of one of the group 
of British officers was heard calling, as if to the ground before 
him, " Up, Guards, and at them !" It was the duke who gave 
the order ; and at the words, as if by magic, up started before 
them a line of the British Guards four deep, and in the most 
compact and perfect order. They poured an instantaneons vol- 
ley upon the head of the French column, by which no less than 
three hundred of those chosen veterans are said to have fallen. 
The French officers rushed forward ; and, conspicuous in front 
of their men, attempted to deploy them into a more extended 
line, so as to enable them to reply with effect to the British fire. 
But Maitland's brigade kept showering in volley after volley 
with deadly rapidity. The decimated column grew disordered 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 391 

in its vain efforts to expand itself into a more efficient forma- 
tion. The right word was given at the right moment to the 
British for the bayonet-charge, and the brigade sprang forward 
with a loud cheer against their dismayed antagonists. In an in- 
stant the compact mass of the French spread out into a rabble, 
and they fled back down the hill, pursued by Maitland's men, 
who, however, returned to their position in time to take part in 
the repulse of the second column of the Imperial Guard. 

This column also advanced with great spirit and firmness un- 
der the connonade which was opened on it ; and, passing by the 
eastern wall of Hougoumont, diverged slightly to the right as it 
moved up the slope towards the British position, so as to ap- 
proach nearly the same spot where the first column had sur- 
mounted the height, and been defeated. This enabled the 
British regiments of Adams's brigade to form a line paralled to 
the left flank of the French column ; so that while the front of 
this column of French Guards had to encounter the cannonade 
of the British batteries and the musketry of Maitland's guards, 
its left flank was assailed with a destructive fire by a four-deep 
body of British infantry, extending all along it. In such a po- 
sition all the bravery and skill of the French veterans were vain. 
The second column, like its predecessor, broke and fled, taking 
at first a lateral direction along the front of the British line tow- 
ards the rear of La Haye Sainte, and so becoming blended 
with the divisions of French infantry which under Donzelot 
had been assailing the Allies so formidably in that quarter. 
The sight of the Old Guard broken and in flight checked the 
ardor which Donzelot's troops had hitherto displayed. They, 
too, began to waver. Adams's victorious brigade was pressing 
after the flying Guard, and now cleared away the assailants of 
the allied centre. But the battle was not yet won. Napoleon 
had still some battalions in reserve near La Belle Alliance. He 
was rapidly rallying the remains of the first column of his 
Guards, and he had collected into one body the remnants of the 
various corps of cavalry, which had suffered so severely in the 
earlier part of the day. The duke instantly formed the bold 
resolution of now himself becoming the assailant and leading 
his successful though enfeebled army forward while the dis- 
heartening effect of the repulse of the Imperial Guard on the 
rest of the French army was still strong, and before Napoleon 
and Ney could rally the beaten veterans themselves for another 
and a fiercer charge. As the close approach of the Prussians 
now completely protected the duke's left, he had drawn some 



392 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

reserves of horse from that quarter, and he had a brigade of 
Hussars under Vivian fresh and ready at hand. Without a 
moment's hesitation he launched these against the cavalry near 
La Belle Alliance. The charge was as successful as it was dar- 
ing ; and, as there was now no hostile cavalry to check the 
British infantry in a forward movement, the duke gave the 
long-wished-for command for a general advance of the army 
along the whole line upon the foe. It was now past eight 
o'clock, and for nearly nine deadly hours had the British and 
German regiments stood unflinching under the fire of artillery, 
the charge of cavalry, and every variety of assault which the 
compact columns or the scattered tirailleurs of the enemy's in- 
fantry could inflict. As they joyously sprang forward against 
the discomfited masses of the French, the setting sun broke 
through the clouds which had obscured the sky during the 
greater part of the day, and glittered on the bayonets of the 
Allies, while they poured down into the valley and towards the 
heights that were held by the foe. The duke himself was 
among the foremost in the advance, and personally directed the 
movements against each body of the French that essayed re- 
sistance. He rode in front of Adams's brigade, cheering it for- 
ward, and even galloped among the most advanced of the 
British skirmishers, speaking joyously to the men, and receiv- 
ing their hearty shouts of congratulation. The bullets of both 
friends and foes were whistling fast around him ; and one of 
the few survivors of his staff remonstrated with him for thus 
exposing a life of such value. " Never mind," was the duke's 
answer — " never mind, let them fire away ; the battle's won, 
and my life is of no consequence now." And, indeed, almost 
the whole of the French host were now in irreparable confusion. 
The Prussian army was coming more and more rapidly for- 
ward on their right ; and the Young Guard, which had held 
Planchenoit so bravely, was at last compelled to give way. 
Some regiments of the Old Guard in vain endeavored to form 
in squares and stem the current. They were swept away, and 
wrecked among the waves of the flyers. Napoleon had placed 
himself in one of these squares : Marshal Soult, Generals Ber- 
trand, Drouot, Corbineau, De Flahaut, and Gourgaud, were 
with him. The emperor spoke of dying on the field, but Soult 
seized his bridle and turned his charger round, exclaiming, 
" Sire, are not the enemy already lucky enough ?" * With the 

* Colonel Lemonnier-Delafosse, " Memoires," p. 388. The colonel states 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 393 

greatest difficulty, and only by the utmost exertion of the de- 
voted officers round him, Napoleon cleared the throng* of fugi- 
tives, and escaped from the scene of the battle and the war, 
which he and France had lost past all recovery. Meanwhile the 
Duke of Wellington still rode forward with the van of his vic- 
torious troops, until he reined up on the elevated ground near 
Rossomme. The daylight was now entirely gone ; but the 
young moon had risen, and the light which it cast, aided by the 
glare from the burning houses and other buildings in the line of 
the flying French and pursuing Prussians, enabled tbe duke to 
assure himself that his victory was complete. He then rode 
back along the Charleroi road towards Waterloo ; and near La 
Belle Alliance he met Marshal Bliicher. Warm were the con- 
gratulations that were exchanged between the allied chiefs. It 
was arranged that the Prussians should follow up the pursuit, 
and give the French no chance of rallying. Accordingly the 
British array, exhausted by its toils and sufferings during that 
dreadful day, did not advance beyond the heights which the 
enemy had occupied. But the Prussians drove the fugitives 
before them in merciless chase throughout the night. Can- 
non, baggage, and all the materiel of the army were abandoned 
by the French ; and many thousands of the infantry threw away 
their arms to facilitate their escape. The ground was strewn 
for miles with the wrecks of their host. There was no rear- 
guard ; nor was even the semblance of order attempted. An 
attempt at resistance was made at the bridge and village of 
Genappe, the first narrow pass through which the bulk of the 
French retired. The situation was favorable ; and a few res- 
olute battalions, if ably commanded, might have held their pur- 
suers at bay there for some considerable time. But despair and 
panic were now universal in the beaten army. At the first 
sound of the Prussian drums and bugles, Genappe was aban- 
doned, and nothing thought of but headlong flight. The Prus- 
sians, under General Gneisenau, still followed and still slew ; 
nor even when the Prussian infantry stopped in sheer exhaus- 
tion, was the pursuit given up. Gneisenau still pushed on w T ith 
the cavalry ; and by an ingenious stratagem made the French 
believe that his infantry were still close on them, and scared 
them from every spot where they attempted to pause and rest. 
He mounted one of his drummers on a horse which had been 

that he heard these details from General Gourgaud himself. The English 
reader will be reminded of Charles I.'s retreat from Naseby. 



394 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

taken from the captured carriage of Napoleon, and made him 
ride along with the pursuing cavalry, and beat the drum when- 
ever they came on any large number of the French. The French 
thus fled, and the Prussians pursued through Quatre Bras, and 
even over the heights of Frasne ; and when at length Gneisenau 
drew bridle, and halted a little beyond Frasne with the scanty 
remnant of keen hunters who had kept up the chase with him 
to the last, the French were scattered through Gosselies, Mar- 
chiennes, and Charleroi ; and were striving to regain the left 
bank of the river Sambre, which they had crossed in such pomp 
and pride not a hundred hours before. 

Part of the French left wing endeavored to escape from the 
field without blending with the main body of the fugitives who 
thronged the Genappe causeway. A French officer who was 
among those who thus retreated across the country westward of 
the high-road has vividly described what he witnessed and what 
he suffered. Colonel Lemonnier-Delafosse served in the cam- 
paign of 1815 in General Foy's staff, and was consequently in 
that part of the French army at Waterloo which acted against 
Hougoumont and the British right wing. When the column of 
the Imperial Guard made their great charge at the end of the 
day, the troops of Foy's division advanced in support of them, 
and Colonel Lemonnier-Delafosse describes the confident hopes 
of victory and promotion with which he marched to that attack, 
and the fearful carnage and confusion of the assailants, amid 
which he was helplessly hurried back by his flying comrades. 
He then narrates the closing scene : * 

" Near one of the hedges of Hougoumont farm, without even 
a drummer to beat the rappel, we succeeded in rallying under 
the enemy's fire 300 men : they were nearly all that remained of 
our splendid division. Thither came together a band of gen- 
erals. There was Reille, whose horse had been shot under him ; 
there were D'Erlon, Bachelu, Foy, Jamin, and others. All were 
gloomy and sorrowful, like vanquished men. Their words were, 
— ' Here is all that is left of my corps, of my division, of my 
brigade. I, myself.' We had seen the fall of Duhesme, of 
Pelet-de-Morvan, of Michel — generals who had found a glorious 
death. My general, Foy, had his shoulder pierced through by 
a musket-ball ; and out of his whole staff two officers only were 
left to him, Cahour Duhay and I. Fate had spared me in the 

* Col. Lemonnier-Delafosse, " Memoires," pp. 385-405. There are omis- 
sions and abridgments in the translation which I have given. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 395 

midst of so many dangers, though the first charger I rode had 
been shot and had fallen on me. 

" The enemy's horse were coming down on us, and our little 
group was obliged to retreat. What had happened to our di- 
vision of the left wing had taken place all along the line. The 
movement of the hostile cavalry, which inundated the whole 
plain, had demoralized our soldiers, who, seeing all regular re- 
treat of the army cut off, strove each man to effect one for him- 
self. At each instant the road became more encumbered. In- 
fantry, cavalry, and artillery were pressing along pell-mell : 
jammed together like a solid mass. Figure to yourself 40,000 
men struggling and thrusting themselves along a single cause- 
way. We could not take that way without destruction ; so the 
generals who had collected together near the Hougoumont 
hedge dispersed across the fields. General Foy alone remained 
with the 300 men whom he had gleaned from the field of bat- 
tle, and marched at their head. Our anxiety was to withdraw 
from the scene of action without being confounded with the 
fugitives. Our general wished to retreat like a true soldier. 
Seeing three lights in the southern horizon, like beacons, Gen- 
eral Foy asked me what I thought of the position of each. I 
answered, i The first to the left is Genappe, the second is at 
Bois de Bossu, near the farm of Quatre Bras ; the third is at 
Gosselies.' ' Let us march on the second one, then,' replied 
Foy, ' and let no obstacle stop us — take the head of the column, 
and do not lose sight of the guiding light.' Such was his or- 
der, and I strove to obey. 

" After all the agitation and the incessant din of a long day 
of battle, how imposing was the stillness of that night ! We 
proceeded on our sad and lonely march. We were a prey to 
the most cruel reflections ; we were humiliated, we were hope- 
less ; but not a word of complaint was heard. We walked 
silently as a troop of mourners and it might have been said 
that we were attending the funeral of our country's glory. Sud- 
denly the stillness was broken by a challenge, — ' Qui viveV 
1 France ?' ' Kellermann !' 4 Foy !' ' Is it you, general ? come 
nearer to us.' At that moment we were passing over a little 
hillock, at the foot of which was a hut, in which Kellermann 
and some of his officers had halted. They came out to join us. 
Foy said to me, i Kellermann knows the country : he has been 
along here before with his cavalry; we had better follow him. 
But we found that the direction which Kel'ermann chose was 
towards the first light, towards Genappe. That led to the 



396 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

causeway which our general rightly wished to avoid. I went 
to the left to reconnoitre, and was soon convinced that such 
was the case. It was then that I was able to form a full idea 
of the disorder of a routed army. What a hideous spectacle ! 
The mountain torrent, that uproots and whirls along with it 
every momentary obstacle, is a feeble image of that heap of 
men, of horses, of equipages, rushing one upon another ; gather- 
ing before the least obstacle which dams up their way for a 
few seconds, only to form a mass which overthrows everything 
in the path which it forces for itself. Woe to him whose foot- 
ing failed him in that deluge ! He was crushed, trampled to 
death ! I returned and told my general what I had seen, and 
he instantly abandoned Kellermann, and resumed his original 
line of march. 

"Keeping straight across the country over fields and the 
rough thickets, we at last arrived at the Bois de Bossu, where 
we halted. My general said to me, * Go to the farm of Quatre 
Bras and announce that we are here. The emperor or Soult 
must be there. . Ask for orders, and recollect that I am waiting 
here for you. The lives of these men depend on your exact- 
ness.' To reach the farm I was obliged to cross the high-road : 
I was on horseback, but nevertheless was borne away by the 
crowd that fled along the road, and it was long ere I could ex- 
tricate myself and reach the farm-house. General Lobau was 
there with his staff, resting in fancied security. They thought 
that their troops had halted there ; but, though a halt had been 
attempted, the men had soon fled forward, like their comrades 
of the rest of the army. The shots of the approaching Prus- 
sians were now heard ; and I believe that General Lobau was 
taken prisoner in that farm-house. I left him to rejoin my gen- 
eral, which I did with difficulty. I found him alone. His men, 
as they came near the current of flight, were infected with the 
general panic, and fled also. 

" What was to be done ? Follow that crowd of runaways ? 
General Foy would not hear of it. There were five of us still 
with him, all officers. He had been wounded at about five in 
the afternoon, and the wound had not been dressed. He suf- 
fered severely ; but his moral courage was unbroken. ' Let us 
keep,' he said, ' a line parallel to the high-road, and work our 
way hence as we best can.' A foot-track was before us, and we 
followed it. 

" The moon shone out brightly, and revealed the full wretch- 
edness of the tableau w T hich met our eyes. A brigadier and four 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 39*7 

cavalry soldiers, whom we met with, formed our escort. We 
marched on ; and, as the noise grew more distant, I thought 
that we were losing the parallel of the highway. Finding that 
we had the moon more and more on the left, I felt sure of this, 
and mentioned it to the general. Absorbed in thought, he made 
me no reply. We came in front of a windmill, and endeavored 
to procure some information ; but we could not gain an en- 
trance or make any one answer, and we continued our nocturnal 
march. At last we entered a village, but found every door 
closed against us, and were obliged to use threats in order to 
gain admission into a single house. The poor woman to whom 
it belonged, more dead than alive, received us as if we had been 
enemies. Before asking where we were, ' Food, give us some 
food !' was our cry. Bread and butter and beer were brought, 
and soon disappeared before men who had fasted for twenty- 
four hours. A little revived, we ask, i Where are we ? what is 
the name of this village ? ' — ' Vieville.' 

" On looking at the map, I saw that in coming to that village 
we had leaned too much to the right, and that we were in the 
direction of Mons. In order to reach the Sambre at the bridge 
of Marchiennes, we had four leagues to traverse ; and there was 
scarcely time to march the distance before daybreak. I made a 
villager act as our guide, and bound him by his arm to my stir- 
rup. He led us through Roux to Marchiennes. The poor fel- 
low ran alongside of my horse the whole way. It was cruel, but 
necessary to compel him, for we had not an instant to spare. 
At six in the morning we entered Marchiennes. 

" Marshal Ney was there. Our general went to see him, and 
to ask what orders he had to give. Ney was asleep ; and, rather 
than rob him of the first repose he had had for four days, our gen- 
eral returned to us without seeing him. And, indeed, what or- 
ders could Marshal Ney have given? The whole army was 
crossing the Sambre, each man where and how he chose ; some 
at Charleroi, some at Marchiennes. We were about to do the 
same thing. When once beyond the Sambre, we might safely 
halt ; and both men and horses were in extreme need of rest. 
We passed through Thuin ; and finding a little copse near the 
road, we gladly sought its shelter. While our horses grazed, we 
lay down and slept. How sweet was that sleep after the fa- 
tigues of the long day of battle, and after the night of retreat 
more painful still ! We rested in the little copse till noon, and 
sat there watching the wrecks of our army defile along the road 
before us. It was a soul-harrowing sight ! Yet the different 



398 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

arms of the service had resumed a certain degree of order amid 
their disorder ; and our general, feeling his strength revive, re- 
solved to follow a strong column of cavalry which was taking 
the direction of Beaumont, about four leagues off. We drew 
near Beaumont, when suddenly a regiment of horse was seen de- 
bouching from a wood on our left. The column that we fol- 
lowed shouted out, i The Prussians ! the Prussians !' and gal- 
loped off in utter disorder. The troops that thus alarmed them 
were not a tenth part of their number, and were in reality our own 
8th Hussars, who wore green uniforms. But the panic had been 
brought even thus far from the battle-field, and the disorganized 
column galloped into Beaumont, which was already crowded 
with our infantry. We were obliged to follow that debacle. 
On entering Beaumont we chose a house of superior appearance, 
and demanded of the mistress of it refreshments for the general. 
* Alas !' said the lady, ' this is the tenth general who has been 
to this house since this morning. I have nothing left. Search, 
if you please, and see.' Though unable to find food for the 
general, I persuaded him to take his coat off and let me examine 
his wound. The bullet had gone through the twists of the left 
epaulette, and, penetrating the skin, had run round the shoulder 
without injuring the bone. The lady of the house made some 
lint for me ; and without any great degree of surgical skill I suc- 
ceeded in dressing the wound. 

"Being still anxious to procure some food for the general and 
ourselves, if it were but a loaf of ammunition bread, I left the 
house and rode out into the town. I saw pillage going on in 
every direction : open caissons, stripped and half - broken, 
blocked up the streets. The pavement was covered with plun- 
dered and torn baggage. Pillagers and runaways, such were all 
the comrades I met with. Disgusted at them, I strove, sword 
in hand, to stop one of the plunderers ; but, more active than I, 
he gave me a bayonet stab in my left arm, in which I fortunately 
caught his thrust, which had been aimed full at my body. He 
disappeared among the crowd, through which I could not force 
my horse. My spirit of discipline had made me forget that in 
such circumstances the soldier is a mere wild beast. But to be 
wounded by a fellow-countryman after having passed unharmed 
through all the perils of Quatre Bras and Waterloo ! — this did 
seem hard, indeed. I was trying to return to General Foy, when 
another horde of flyers burst into Beaumont, swept me into the 
current of their flight, and hurried me out of the town with 
them. Until I received my wound I had preserved my moral 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 399 

courage in full force ; but now, worn out with fatigue, covered 
with blood, and suffering severe pain from the wound, I own 
that I gave way to the general demoralization, and let myself be 
inertly borne along with the rushing mass. At last I reached 
Landrecies, though I know not how or when. But I found there 
our Colonel Hurday, who had been left behind there in conse- 
quence of an accidental injury from a carriage. He took me 
with him to Paris, where I retired amid my family, and got 
cured of my wound, knowing nothing of the rest of political and 
military events that were taking place." 

No returns ever were made of the amount of the French loss 
in the battle of Waterloo; but it must have been immense, and 
may be partially judged of by the amount of killed and wounded 
in the armies of the conquerors. On this subject both the Prus- 
sian and British official evidence is unquestionably full and au- 
thentic. The figures are terribly emphatic. 

Of the army that fought under the Duke of Wellington nearly 
15,000 men were killed and wounded on this single day of bat- 
tle. Seven thousand Prussians also fell at Waterloo. At such 
a fearful price was the deliverance of Europe purchased. 

By none was the severity of that loss more keenly felt than by 
our great deliverer himself. As may be seen in Major Macrea- 
dy's narrative, the duke, while the battle was raging, betrayed 
no sign of emotion at the most ghastly casualties ; but, when all 
was over, the sight of the carnage with which the field was 
covered, and, still more, the sickening spectacle of the agonies 
of the wounded men who lay moaning in their misery by thou- 
sands and tens of thousands, weighed heavily on the spirit of the 
victor, as he rode back across the scene of strife. On reaching 
his headquarters in the village of Waterloo, the duke inquired 
anxiously after the numerous friends who had been round him 
in the morning, and to whom he was warmly attached. Many, 
he was told, were dead ; others were lying alive, but mangled 
and suffering, in the houses round him. It is in our hero's own 
words alone that his feelings can be adequately told. In a let- 
ter written by him almost immediately after his return from the 
field, he thus expressed himself: "My heart is broken by the 
terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions 
and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost 
can be half so melancholy as a battle won. The bravery of my 
troops has hitherto saved me from the greater evil ; but to win 
such a battle as this of Waterloo, at the expense of so many 
gallant friends, could only be termed a heavy misfortune but for 
the result to the public." 



400 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

It is not often that a successful general in modern warfare is 
called on, like the victorious commander of the ancient Greek 
armies, to award a prize of superior valor to one of his soldiers. 
Such was to some extent the case with respect to the battle of 
Waterloo. In the August of 1818, an English clergyman offered 
to confer a small annuity on some Waterloo soldier, to be named 
by the duke.* The duke requested Sir John Byng to choose a 
man from the 2d Brigade of Guards, which had so highly dis- 
tinguished itself in the defence of Hougoumont. There were 
many gallant candidates, but the election fell on Sergeant James 
Graham, of the light company of the Coldstreams. This brave 
man had signalized himself throughout the day in the defence of 
that important post, and especially in the critical struggle that 
took place at the period when the French, who had gained the 
wood, the orchard, and detached garden, succeeded in bursting 
open a gate of the court-yard of the chateau itself, and rushed 
in in large masses, confident of carrying all before them. A 
hand-to-hand fight, of the most desperate character, was kept up 
between them and the Guards for a few minutes ; but at last the 
British bayonets prevailed. Nearly all the Frenchmen who had 
forced their way in were killed on the spot ; and, as the few sur- 
vivors ran back, five of the Guards, Colonel Macdonnell, Captain 
Wyndham, Ensign Gooch, Ensign Hervey, and Sergeant Graham, 
by sheer strength, closed the gate again, in spite of the efforts 
of the French from without, and effectually barricaded it against 
further assaults. Over and through the loopholed wall of the 
court-yard the English garrison now kept up a deadly fire of 
musketry, which was fiercely answered by the French, who 
swarmed round the curtilage like ravening wolves. Shells, too, 
from their batteries were falling fast into the besieged place, 
one of which set part of the mansion and some of the outbuild- 
ings on fire. Graham, who was at this time standing near 
Colonel Macdonnell at the wall, and who had shown the most 
perfect steadiness and courage, now asked permission of his 
commanding officer to retire for a moment. Macdonnell replied, 
" By all means, Graham ; but I wonder you should ask leave 
now." Graham answered, " I would not, sir, only my brother 
is wounded, and he is in that outbuilding there, which has just 
caught fire." Laying down his musket, Graham ran to the blaz- 
ing spot, lifted up his brother, and laid him in a ditch. Then 
he was back at his post, and was plying his musket against 

* 3iborne, vol. i., p. 391, 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 401 

the French again before his absence was noticed, except by his 
colonel. 

Many anecdotes of individual prowess have been preserved; 
but of all the brave men who were in the British army on that 
eventful day, none deserve more honor for courage and indomi- 
table resolution than Sir Thomas Picton, who, as has been men- 
tioned, fell in repulsing the great attack of the French upon the 
British left centre. It was not until the dead body was exam- 
ined after the battle that the full heroism of Picton was dis- 
cerned. He had been wounded on the 16th, at Quatre Bras, by 
a musket-ball, which had broken two of his ribs, and caused also 
severe internal injuries ; but he had concealed the circumstance, 
evidently in expectation that another and greater battle would be 
fought in a short time, and desirous to avoid being solicited to 
absent himself from the field. His body was blackened and 
swollen by the wound, which must have caused severe and in- 
cessant pain ; and it was marvellous how his spirit had borne 
him up, and enabled him to take part in the fatigues and duties 
of the field. The bullet which, on the 18th, killed the renowned 
leader of " the fighting division " of the Peninsula entered the 
head near the left temple, and passed through the brain ; so that 
Picton's death must have been instantaneous. 

One of the most interesting narratives of personal adventure 
at Waterloo is that of Colonel Frederick Ponsonby, of the 12th 
Light Dragoons, who was severely wounded when Vandeleur's 
brigade, to which he belonged, attacked the French lancers, in 
order to bring off the Union Brigade, which was retiring from its 
memorable charge.* The 12th, like those whom they rescued, 
advanced much farther against the French position than pru- 
dence warranted. Ponsonby, with many others, was speared by 
a reserve of Polish lancers, and left for dead on the field. It is 
well to refer to the description of what he suffered (as he after- 
wards gave it, when almost miraculously recovered from his 
numerous wounds), because his fate, or worse, was the fate of 
thousands more ; and because the narrative of the pangs of an 
individual, with whom we can indentify ourselves, always comes 
more home to us than a general description of the miseries of 
whole masses. His tale may make us remember what are the 
horrors of war as well as its glories. It is to be remembered 
that the operations which he refers to took place about three 
o'clock in the day, and that the fighting went on for at least five 

* Sec p. 378, supra. 



402 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

hours more. After describing how he and his men charged 
through the French whom they first encountered, and went 
against other enemies, he states : 

" We had no sooner passed them than we were ourselves at- 
tacked, before we could form, by about 300 Polish lancers, who 
had hastened to their relief; the French artillery pouring in 
among us a heavy fire of grape, though for one of our men they 
killed three of their own. 

" In the melee I was almost instantly disabled in both arms, 
losing first my sword, and then my reins, and followed by a few 
men, who were presently cut down, no quarter being allowed, 
asked, or given, I was carried along by my horse, till, receiving 
a blow from a sabre, I fell senseless on my face to the ground. 

" Recovering, I raised myself a little to look round, being at 
that time, I believe, in a condition to get up and run away; 
when a lancer, passing by, cried out, ' Tu n'est pas mort, coquin !' 
and struck his lance through my back. My head dropped, the 
blood gushed into my mouth, a difficulty of breathing came on, 
and I thought all was over. 

" Not long afterwards (it was impossible to measure time, but 
I must have fallen in less than ten minutes after the onset), a 
tirailleur stopped to plunder me, threatening my life. I direct- 
ed him to a small side-pocket, in which he found three dollars, all 
I had ; but he continued to threaten, and I said he might search 
me : this he did immediately, unloosing my stock and tearing 
open my waistcoat, and leaving me in a very uneasy posture. 

" But he was no sooner gone than an officer bringing up some 
troops, to which probably the tirailleur belonged, and happening 
to halt where I lay, stooped down and addressed me, saying he 
feared I was badly wounded ; I said that I was, and expressed a 
wish to be removed to the rear. He said it was against their 
orders to remove even their own men ; but that if they gained 
the day (and he understood that the Duke of Wellington was 
killed, and that some of our battalions had surrendered), every 
attention in his power would be shown me. I complained of 
thirst, and he held his brandy-bottle to my lips, directing one of 
the soldiers to lay me straight on my side, and place a knapsack 
under my head. He then passed on into action — soon, perhaps, 
to want, though not receive, the same assistance ; and I shall 
never know to whose generosity I was indebted, as I believe, for 
my life. Of what rank he was, I cannot say : he wore a great- 
coat. By and by another tirailleur came up, a fine young man, 
full of ardor. He knelt down and fired over me, loading and 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 403 

firing many times, and conversing with me all the while." The 
Frenchman, with strange coolness, informed Ponsonby of how 
he was shooting, and what he thought of the progress of the 
battle. " At last he ran off, exclaiming, i You will probably not 
be sorry to hear that we are going to retreat. Good-day, my 
friend.' It was dusk," Ponsonby adds, " when two squadrons 
of Prussian cavalry, each of them two deep, came across the 
valley, and passed over me in full trot, lifting me from the 
ground, and tumbling me about cruelly. The clatter of their 
approach, and the apprehensions they excited, may be imagined ; 
a gun taking that direction must have destroyed me. 

"The battle was now at an end, or removed to a distance. 
The shouts, the imprecations, the outcries of ' Vive l'Empereur !' 
the discharge of musketry and cannon, were over ; and the 
groans of the wounded all around me became every moment 
more and more audible. I thought the night would never end. 

" Much about this time I found a soldier of the Royals lying 
across my legs — he had probably crawled thither in his agony ; 
and his weight, his convulsive motions, and the air issuing 
through a wound in his side, distressed me greatly ; the last cir- 
cumstance most of all, as I had a wound of the same nature my- 
self. 

" It was not a dark night, and the Prussians were wandering 
about to plunder ; the scene in ' Ferdinand Count Fathom ' came 
into my mind, though no women appeared. Several stragglers 
looked at me, as they passed by, one after another, and at last 
one of them stopped to examine me. I told him as well as I 
could, for I spoke German very imperfectly, that I was a British 
officer, and had been plundered already ; he did not desist, how- 
ever, and pulled me about roughly. 

" An hour before midnight I saw a man in an English uniform 
walking towards me. He was, I suspect, on the same errand, 
and he came and looked in my face. I spoke instantly, telling 
him who I was, and assuring him of a reward if he would re- 
main by me. He said he belonged to the 40th, and had missed 
his regiment ; he released me from the dying soldier, and, being 
unarmed, took up a sword from the ground, and stood over me, 
pacing backward and forward. 

" Day broke ; and at six o'clock in the morning some English 
were seen at a distance, and he ran to them. A messenger be- 
ing sent off to Hervey, a cart came for me, and I was placed in 
it, and carried to the village of Waterloo, a mile and a half off, 
and laid in the bed from which, as I understood afterwards, 



404 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

Gordon had been just carried out. I had received seven 
wounds ; a surgeon slept in my room, and I was saved by ex- 
cessive bleeding." 

Major Macready, in the journal already cited,* justly praises 
the deep devotion to their emperor which marked the French at 
"Waterloo. Never, indeed, had the national bravery of the 
French people been more nobly shown. One soldier in the 
French ranks was seen, when his arm was shattered by a can- 
non-ball, to wrench it off with the other ; and, throwing it up in 
the air, he exclaimed to his comrades, "Vive l'Empereur jusqu'a 
la mort !" Colonel Lemonnier-Delafosse mentions in his " Me- 
mories "f that, at the beginning of the action, a French soldier who 
had had both legs carried off by a cannon-ball was borne past 
the front of Foy's division, and called out to them, " Ce n'est 
rien, camarades ! Vive l'Empereur ! Gloire a la France !" The 
same officer, at the end of the battle, when all hope was lost, 
tells us that he saw a French grenadier, blackened with powder, 
and with his clothes torn and stained, leaning on his musket, 
and immovable as a statue. The colonel called to him to join 
his comrades and retreat ; but the grenadier showed him his 
musket and his hands ; and said, " These hands have with this 
musket used to-day more than twenty packets of cartridges : it 
was more than my share. I supplied myself with ammunition 
from the dead. Leave me to die here on the field of battle. It 
is not courage that fails me, but strength." Then, as Colonel 
Delafosse left him, the soldier stretched himself on the ground 
to meet his fate, exclaiming, " Tout est perdu ! pauvre France !" 
The gallantry of the French officers at least equalled that of their 
men. Ney, in particular, set the example of the most daring 
courage. Here, as in every French army in which he ever 
served or commanded, he was " le brave des braves." Through- 
out the day he was in the front of the battle ; and was one of 
the very last Frenchmen who quitted the field. His horse was 
killed under him in the last attack made on the English posi- 
tion ; but he was seen on foot, his clothes torn with bullets, his 
face smirched with powder, striving, sword in hand, first to urge 
his men forward, and at last to check their flight. 

There was another brave general of the French army, whose 
valor and good conduct on that day of disaster to his nation 
should never be unnoticed when the story of Waterloo is re- 
counted. This was General Pelet, who, about seven in the even- 

* See supra, p. 383. \ Page 388. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 405 

ing, led the first battalion of the 2d regiment of the Chasseurs 
of the Guard to the defence of Planchenoit, and on whom 
Napoleon personally urged the deep importance of maintaining 
possession of that village. Pelet and his men took their post in 
the central part of the village, and occupied the church and 
churchyard in great strength. There they repelled every assault 
of the Prussians, who in rapidly increasing numbers rushed for- 
ward with infuriated pertinacity. They held their post till the 
utter rout of the main army of their comrades was apparent, and 
the victorious Allies were thronging around Planchenoit. Then 
Pelet and his brave chasseurs quitted the churchyard, and retired 
with steady march, though they suffered fearfully from the mo- 
ment they left their shelter, and Prussian cavalry as well as in- 
fantry dashed fiercely after them. Pelet kept together a little 
knot of 250 veterans, and had the eagle covered over, and borne 
along in the midst of them. At one time the inequality of the 
ground caused his ranks to open a little; and in an instant the 
Prussian horsemen were on them, and striving to capture the 
eagle. Captain Siborne relates the conduct of Pelet with the 
admiration worthy of one brave soldier for another : 

" Pelet, taking advantage of a spot of ground which afforded 
them some degree of cover against the fire of grape by which, 
they were constantly assailed, halted the standard-bearer, and 
called out, ' A moi, chasseurs ! Sauvons l'aigle, ou mourons autour 
d'elle !' The chasseurs immediately pressed around him, form- 
ing what is usually termed the rallying square, and, lowering 
their bayonets, succeeded in repulsing the charge of cavalry. 
Some guns were then brought to bear upon them, and subse- 
quently a brisk fire of musketry ; but notwithstanding the 
awful sacrifice which was thus offered up in defence of their 
precious charge, they succeeded in reaching the main line of 
retreat, favored by the universal confusion, as also by the general 
obscurity which now prevailed ; and thus saved alike the eagle 
and the honor of the regiment." 

French writers do injustice to their own army and general 
when they revive malignant calumnies against Wellington, and 
speak of his having blundered into victory. No blunderer could 
have successfully encountered such troops as those of Napoleon, 
and under such a leader. It is superfluous to cite against these 
cavils the testimony which other Continental critics have borne 
to the high military genius of our illustrious chief. I refer to 
one only, which is of peculiar value, on account of the quarter 
whence it comes. It is that of the great German writer Niebuhr, 



406 BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

whose accurate acquaintance with every important scene of mod- 
ern as well as ancient history was unparalleled, and who was no 
mere pedant, but a man practically versed in active life, and had 
been personally acquainted with most of the leading men in 
the great events of the early part of this century. Niebuhr, in 
the passage which I allude to,* after referring to the military 
" blunders " of Mithridates, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, 
Pyrrhus, and Hannibal, uses these remarkable words : " The 
Duke of Wellington is, I believe, the only general in whose 
conduct of war we cannot discover any important mistake." 
Not that it is to be supposed that the duke's merits were simply 
of a negative order, or that he was merely a cautious, phlegmatic 
general, fit only for defensive warfare, as some recent French 
historians have described him. On the contrary, he was bold 
even to audacity when boldness was required. " The intrepid 
advance and fight at Assaye, the crossing of the Douro, and the 
movement on Talavera in 1809, the advance to Madrid and 
Burgos in 1812, the actions before Bayonne in 1813, and the 
desperate stand made at Waterloo itself, when more tamely 
prudent generals would have retreated beyond Brussels, place 
this beyond a doubt." f 

The overthrow of the French military power at Waterloo was 
so complete that the subsequent events of the brief campaign 
have little interest. Lamartine truly says : " This defeat left 
nothing undecided in future events, for victory had given judg- 
ment. The war began and ended in a single battle." Napoleon 
himself recognized instantly and fully the deadly nature of the 
blow which had been dealt to his empire. In his flight from the 
battle-field he first halted at Charleroi, but the approach of the 
pursuing Prussians drove him thence before he had rested there 
an hour. With difficulty getting clear of the wrecks of his own 
army, he reached Philippeville, where he remained a few hours, 
and sent orders to the French generals in the various extremities 
of France to converge with their troops upon Paris. He ordered 
Soult to collect the fugitives of his own force, and lead them to 
Laon. He then hurried forward to Paris, and reached his capital 
before the news of his own defeat. But the stern truth soon 
transpired. At the demand of the Chambers of Peers and Rep- 
resentatives, he abandoned the throne by a second and final ab- 

*" Roman History," vol. v., p. 1*7. 

f See the admirable parallel of Wellington and Marlborough at the end of 
Sir Archibald Alison's " Life of the Duke of Marlborough." Sir Archibald 
justly considers Wellington the more daring general of the two. 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 407 

dication on the 2 2d of June. On the 29th of June he left the 
neighborhood of Paris, and proceeded to Rochefort in the hope 
of escaping to America ; but the coast was strictly watched, and 
on the 1 5th of July the ex-emperor surrendered himself on board 
of the English man-of-war Bellerophon. 

Meanwhile the allied armies had advanced steadily upon Paris, 
driving before them Grouchy's corps, and the scanty force which 
Soult had succeeded in rallying at Laon. Cambray, Peronne, 
and other fortresses were speedily captured ; and by the 29th of 
June the invaders were taking their positions in front of Paris. 
The Provisional Government, which acted in the French capital 
after the emperor's abdication, opened negotiations with the 
allied chiefs. Blucher, in his quenchless hatred of the French, 
was eager to reject all proposals for a suspension of hostilities, 
and to assault and storm the city. But the sager and calmer 
spirit of Wellington prevailed over his colleague ; the entreated 
armistice was granted ; and on the 3d of July the capitulation 
of Paris terminated the War of the Battle of Waterloo. 



In closing our observations on this the last of the Decisive 
Battles of the World, it is pleasing to contrast the year which it 
signalized with the year that is now* passing over our heads. 
We have not (and long may we be without!) the stern excitement 
of martial strife, and we see no captive standards of our Euro- 
pean neighbors brought in triumph to our shrines. But we be- 
hold an infinitely prouder spectacle. We see the banners of 
every civilized nation waving over the arena of our competition 
with each other, in the arts that minister to our race's support 
and happiness, and not to its suffering and destruction. 

" Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war ;'' 

and no battle-field ever witnessed a victory more noble than that 
which England, under her sovereign lady and her royal prince, 
is now teaching the peoples of the earth to achieve over selfish 
prejudices and international feuds, in the great cause of the general 
promotion of the industry and welfare of mankind. 

* Written in June, 1851. 



PART II 

QUEBEC— YORKTOWN— VICKSBURG— 
GETTYSBURG— SEDAN— MANILA BAY— SANTIAGO- 
TSU-SHIMA (The Sea of Japan). 



SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE STRUGGLE BE- 
TWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN NORTH AMERICA * 

a.d. 1534. Carrier's first voyage to the St. Lawrence. 

1535-36 and 1541-43. Cartier explores the St. Lawrence to 
Montreal. 

1605. Founding of Port Royal in Acadia by the French. 

1608. Founding of Quebec by Champlain. 

1673. Discovery of the Mississippi b}' Marquette. 

1682. La Salle descends the Mississippi and claims the Valley 
for France. 

1689. King William's War in America begins. Formation, at 
Vienna, of the Grand Alliance against the French. 

1690. The French, under Tourville, defeat the English fleet off 
Beachy Head, England. Destruction of Schenectady, N. Y., by 
the French and Indians. Sir William Phips, commanding New 
England expedition, captures Port Royal, and later makes a fruit- 
less demonstration against Quebec. 

1692. The French fleet, under Tourville, is destroyed by the 
English and Dutch off La Hogue, France. Marshal Luxembourg 
defeats William III., of England, at Steenkerk, Belgium. 

1693. The French defeat the English fleet off Cape St. Vincent, 
Portugal. Victory of Marshal Luxembourg over the English at 
Neerwinden, Belgium. 

1697. France makes peace, at Ryswick, with Holland, Spain, 
and England. 

1699. The French begin the settlement of Louisiana. 

1701. Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession. 

1702. Successful campaign of the English general Marlborough 
in the Netherlands. Naval triumph of the English and Dutch 
over the Spaniards and French at Vigo, Spain. Outbreak of 
Queen Anne's War in America. 

1704. Capture of Gibraltar by the English. The English defeat 
the French at Blenheim. Massacre of Deerfield, Massachusetts. 
1706. Victory of Marlborough over the French at Ramillies. 

* See also Synopsis of Events, pp. 295, 297. 



410 SYNOPSIS. 

1708. Victory of Marlborough and Prince Eugene at Oudenarde. 

1709. Victory of Marlborough and Prince Eugene at Mal- 
plaquet. 

1712. Armistice between France and England. 

1713. The Treaty of Utrecht terminates the War of the Spanish 
Succession. Acadia (Nova Scotia and much of New Brunswick) 
ceded to England by France. The Hudson Bay region also re- 
stored to England. 

1715. Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. 

1717. Triple Alliance between France, Great Britain, and 
Holland. 

1718. Quadruple Alliance between Great Britain, France, 
Austria, and Holland against Spain. French settlement at New 
Orleans. 

1740. Outbreak of War of Austrian Succession in Europe, 
1740-48. This was known in America later as King George's War. 

1741. Victory of Frederick the Great of Prussia over the 
Austrians at Mollwitz. Fall of Prague. 

1744. Actual proclamation of war by England. King George's 
War begins in America with the French capture of Canseau, and 
their repulse at Annapolis (Port Royal). 

1745. Uprising in Scotland in favor of the Young Pretender, 
Charles Edward Stuart. Battle of Prestonpans. Victory of the 
French, under Marshal Saxe, over the English, Hanoverians, 
Dutch, and Austrians at Fontenoy. Sir William Pepperell and 
New England troops capture Louisburg. 

1746. The Jacobite rebellion crushed at Culloden. 

1748. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle terminates the War of the 
Austrian Succession. Louisburg restored to France. 

1753. Friction between French and Americans on tributaries of 
the Alleghany, along American western frontier. Washington's 
vain protest against French seizure of Venango. 

1754. Beginning of the French and Indian War in America. 
Washington's attack upon Jumonville, near Great Meadows, the 
first action. The French compel Washington to capitulate at 
Fort Necessity. 

1755. Braddock's expedition against Fort Duquesne and his 
disastrous defeat. Abortive expeditions by the English against 
Niagara and Crown Point. 

1756. Formal declaration of hostilities between France and 
England, and beginning of the Seven Years' War. Capture of 
Oswego by the French. 

1757. Montcalm takes Fort William Henry on Lake George. 

1758. Victory of Montcalm at Ticonderoga. Reduction of 
Louisburg, and capture of Forts Frontenac and Duquesne by the 
English. 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 411 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FALL OF QUEBEC, 1759. 

The visits of Breton fishermen to Newfoundland in the early sixteenth cen- 
tury, the voyages of Cartier to the St. Lawrence in 1534 and 1541-43, the 
foundation of Port Royal in Acadia in 1605, and of Quebec by Champlain in 
1608, were the beginnings of a French occupancy of the northern and central 
portions of North America which led inevitably to conflict with England and 
the American colonists. The title based upon Marquette's discovery of the 
Mississippi in 1673, and La Salle's exploration and claim to the whole vast 
valley in 1682, would have confined the English to the Atlantic seaboard. The 
contact between the wholly different types represented in English and French 
colonization caused friction which became acute when King William's War 
broke out in 1689. The eight years of that war, with its profitless capture of 
Port Royal, Nova Scotia, were followed by Queen Anne's War, 1702-13, and 
King George's War, 1744-48, and the interval after the Treaty of Utrecht was 
a truce rather than peace. The French were strengthening their hold along 
the western frontier of the English colonists, at Fort Duquesne, and elsewhere. 
Braddock's defeat in 1755, and attacks upon Crown Point and Niagara, pre- 
ceded the formal declaration of hostilities between France and England in 
1756, the beginning of the Seven Years' War, involving nearly all Europe, 
with England and Prussia facing Russia, France, Austria, Sweden, and Saxony. 
In America, in 1756-57, the incompetency of Loudon and Abercrombie, the 
dilatory preparations to attack Louisburg, and Montcalm's capture of Fort 
William Henry, made the first stage of the war a gloomy one. But Pitt's en- 
trance into the British cabinet as Secretary of State brought an intelligent and 
active prosecution of the war. The next year, 1758, witnessed the capture of 
Fort Frontenac on Ontario, Fort Duquesne, and Louisburg by the English 
and American forces.— Editor. 



The British Parliament met late in November, 1758, at a time 
when the nation was aglow with enthusiasm over the successes of 
the year — Louisburg and Frontenac in North America, and the 
driving of the French from the Guinea coast as the result of 
battles at Senegal (May) and Goree (November).* The war was 
proving far more costly than had been anticipated, yet Pitt rigidly 
held the country to the task; but not against its will, and the 
necessary funds were freely voted. Walpole wrote to a friend: 

* Clowes, Royal Navy, III., 186-189. 



412 THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 

"Our unanimity is prodigious. You would as soon hear 'No' 
from an old maid as from the House of Commons." The prepara- 
tions for the new year were on a much larger scale than before; 
both by land and sea France was to be pushed to the uttermost, 
and the warlike spirit of Great Britain seemed wrought to the 
highest pitch. 

The new French premier, Choiseul, was himself not lacking in 
activity. He renewed with vigor the project of invading Great 
Britain, preparations therefor being evident quite early in the 
year 1759. Fifty thousand men were to land in England, and 
twelve thousand in Scotland, where the Stuart cause still lingered. 
But as usual the effort came to naught. The Toulon squadron 
was to co-operate with one from Brest ; Boscawen, who now com- 
manded the Mediterranean fleet, apprehended the former while 
trying to escape through the Straits of Gibraltar in a thick haze 
(August 17), and after destroying several of the ships dispersed 
the others; while Sir Edward Hawke annihilated the Brest fleet 
in a brilliant sea-fight off Quiberon Bay (November 20).* Re- 
lieved of the possibility of insular invasion, the Channel and 
Mediterranean squadrons were now free to raid French commerce, 
patrol French ports, and thus intercept communication with New 
France and to harry French — and, later, Spanish — colonies overseas. 

In 1757 Clive had regained Calcutta and won Bengal at the 
famous battle of Plassey. Two years thereafter the East Indian 
seas were abandoned by the French after three decisive actions 
won by Pitt's valiant seamen, and India thus became a permanent 
possession of the British empire. f In January, 1759, also, the 
British captured Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. $ Lacking sea 
power, it was impossible for France much longer to hold her 
colonies; it was but a question of time when the remainder should 
fall into the clutches of the mistress of the ocean. 

Notwithstanding all this naval activity, Pitt's principal opera- 
tions were really centred against Canada. The movement thither 
was to be along two lines, which eventually were to meet in co- 
operation. First, a direct attack was to be made upon Quebec, 
headed by Wolfe, who was to be convoyed and assisted by a fleet 
under the command of Admiral Saunders; second, Amherst — 
now commander-in-chief in America, Abercrombie having been 
recalled — was to penetrate Canada by way of Lakes George and 
Champlain. He was to join Wolfe at Quebec, but was authorized 
to make such diversions as he found practicable — principally to 
re-establish Oswego and to relieve Pittsburg (Fort Duquesne)with 
reinforcements and supplies. 

* Clowes, Royal Navy, III., 210-214, on Boscawen's victory; 216-222, on 
Hawke's. t Ibid., 196-201. J Ibid., 201-203. 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 413 

Wolfe's selection as leader of the Quebec expedition occasioned 
general surprise in England. Yet it was in the natural course of 
events. Pie had been the life of the Louisburg campaign of the 
year before, and when Amherst was expressing the desire of at- 
tacking Quebec after the reduction of Cape Breton he wrote to the 
latter: "An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the Indians 
and ruin the French. Block-houses and a trembling defensive 
encourage the meanest scoundrels to attack us. If you will at- 
tempt to cut up New France by the roots, I will come with pleas- 
ure to assist."* 

Wolfe, whose family enjoyed some influence, had attained a 
captaincy at the age of seventeen and became a major at twenty. 
He was now thirty-two, a major-general, and with an excellent 
fighting record both in Flanders and America. Quiet and modest 
in demeanor, although occasionally using excitable and ill- 
guarded language, he was a refined and educated gentleman, care- 
ful of and beloved by his troops, yet a stern disciplinarian; and 
although frail in body, and often overcome by rheumatism and 
other ailments, capable of great strain when buoyed by the zeal 
which was one of his characteristics. The majority of his por- 
traits represent a tall, lank, ungainly form, with a singularly weak 
facial profile ; but it is likely that these belie him, for he had an 
indubitable spirit, a profound mind, quick intuition, a charming 
manner, and was much thought of by women. Indeed, just be- 
fore sailing, be had become engaged to the beautiful and charm- 
ing Katharine Lowther, sister of Lord Lonsdale, and afterwards 
the Duchess of Bolton.f 

On February 17, Wolfe departed with Saunders's fleet of twenty- 
one sail, bearing the king's secret instructions to "carry into 
execution the said important operation with the utmost applica- 
tion and vigour." % The voyage was protracted, and after arrival 
at Louisburg he was obliged to wait long before the promised 
troops appeared. He had expected regiments from Guadeloupe, 
but these could not yet be spared, owing to their wretched condi- 
tion; and the Nova Scotia garrisons had also been weakened by 
disease, so that of the twelve thousand agreed upon he finally 
could muster somewhat under nine thousand.! These were of 
the best quality of their kind ; although the general still entertained 
a low opinion of the value of the provincials, who, it must be ad- 

* Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, II., 80. 

f For biographical details of Wolfe's early career, see Wright, Life, and 
Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, I., 1-128; in ibid., II., 16, is a portrait 
of Wolfe's fiancee. 

t Text in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, VI., 87-90. 

§ Lists in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege oj Quebec, II., 22, 23, 



414 THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 

mitted, were, however serviceable in bush-ranging, far below the 
efficiency of the regulars in a campaign of this character. The 
force was divided into three brigades, under Monckton, Townsend, 
and Murray, young men of ability; although Townsend 's super- 
cilious manner — the fruit of a superior social connection — did not 
endear him either to his men or his colleagues. 

On June 1 the fleet began to leave Louisburg. There were 
thirty-nine men-of-war, ten auxiliaries, seventy-six transports, 
and a hundred and sixty-two miscellaneous craft, which were 
manned by thirteen thousand naval seamen and five thousand 
of the mercantile marine — an aggregate of eighteen thousand, or 
twice as many as the landsmen under Wolfe.* While to the latter 
is commonly given credit for the result, it must not be forgotten 
that the victory was quite as much due to the skilful management 
of the navy as to that of the army, the expedition being in all 
respects a joint enterprise, into which the men of both branches 
of the service entered with intense enthusiasm. 

The French had placed much reliance on the supposed impos- 
sibility of great battle-ships being successfully navigated up the 
St. Lawrence above the mouth of the Saguenay without the most 
careful piloting. This portion of the river, a hundred and twenty 
miles in length, certainly is intricate water, being streaked with 
perplexing currents created by the mingling of the river's strong 
flow with the flood and ebb of the tide; the great stream is di- 
verted into two parallel channels by reefs and islands, and there 
are numerous shoals — moreover, the French had removed all 
lights and other aids to navigation. But British sailors laughed 
at difficulties such as these, and, while they managed to capture 
a pilot, had small use for him, preferring their own cautious meth- 
ods. Preceded by a crescent of sounding-boats, officered by 
Captain James Cook, afterwards of glorious memory as a path- 
finder, the fleet advanced slowly but safely, its approach heralded 
by beacons gleaming nightly to the fore, upon the rounded hill- 
tops overlooking the long, thin line of river-side settlement which 
extended eastward from Quebec to the Saguenay.f 

The French had at first expected attacks only from Lake 
Ontario and from the south. But receiving early tidings of 
Wolfe's expedition, through convoys with supplies from France 
that had escaped Saunders's patrol of the gulf, general alarm 
prevailed, and Montcalm decided to make his stand at Quebec. 
To the last he appears to have shared in the popular delusion that 
British men-of-war could not ascend the river; nevertheless, he 

* Wood, Fight for Canada, 166, 167, 173. 

t "Journal of the Expedition up the River St. Lawrence," by a sergeant- 
major of grenadiers, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V., 1-11, 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 415 

promptly summoned to the capital the greater part of the militia 
from all sections of Canada, save that a thousand whites and 
savages were left with Pouchot to defend Niagara, twelve hun- 
dred men under De la Corne to guard Lake Ontario, and Bour- 
lamaque, with upwards of three thousand, was ordered to delay 
Amherst's advance and thus prevent him from joining Wolfe. 
The population of Canada at the time was about eighty-five 
thousand souls, and of these perhaps twenty-two thousand were 
capable of bearing arms.* The force now gathered in and about 
Quebec aggregated about seventeen thousand, of whom some ten 
thousand were militia, four thousand regulars of the line, and a 
thousand each of colonial regulars, seamen, and Indians; of these 
two thousand were reserved for the garrison of Quebec, under 
De Ramezay, while the remainder were at the disposal of Mont- 
calm for the general defence. f 

The "rock of Quebec" is the northeast end of a long, narrow 
triangular promontory, to the north of which lies the valley 
of the St. Charles and to the south that of the St. Lawrence. 
The acclivity on the St. Charles side is lower and less steep than 
the cliffs fringing the St. Lawrence, which rise almost precipitous- 
ly from two to three hundred feet above the river — the citadel 
cliff being three hundred and forty-five feet, almost sheer. Either 
side of the promontory was easily defensible from assault, the 
table-land being only reached by steep and narrow paths. Sur- 
mounting the cliffs, at the apex of the triangle, was Upper Town, 
the capital of New France. Batteries, largely manned by sail- 
ors, lined the cliff-tops within the town, and the western base, 
fronting the Plains of Abraham, was protected by fifteen hundred 
yards of insecure wall — for, after all, Quebec had, despite the 
money spent upon it, never been scientifically fortified, its com- 
manders having from the first relied chiefly upon its natural 
position as a stronghold. 

At the base of the promontory, on the St. Lawrence side, is a 
wide beach occupied by Lower Town, where were the market, 
the commercial warehouses, a large share of the business es- 
tablishments, and the homes of the trading and laboring classes. 
A narrow strand, little more than the width of a roadway, ex- 
tended along the base of the cliffs westward, communicating with 
the up-river country; another road led westward along the table- 
land above. Thus the city obtained its supplies from the interior 
both by highway and by river. 

Entrance to the St. Charles side of the promontory had been 
blocked by booms at the mouth of that river, protected by strong 

* Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, II., 51-53. 
t Wood, Fight for Canada, 152. 



410 THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 

redoubts; and off Lower Town was a line of floating batteries. 
Beyond the St. Charles, for a distance of seven miles eastward 
to the gorge of the Montmorenci, Montcalm disposed the greater 
part of his forces, his position being a plain naturally protected 
by a steep slope descending to the meadow and tidal flats which 
here margin the St. Lawrence. This plain rises gradually from 
the St. Charles, until at the Montmorenci cataract it attains a 
height of three hundred feet, and along the summit of the slope 
were well-devised trenches. The gorge furnished a strong nat- 
ural defence to the left wing, for it could be forded only in the 
dense forest at a considerable distance above the falls, and to 
force this approach would have been to invite an ambuscade. 
Wolfe contented himself, therefore, with intrenching a consider- 
able force along the eastern bank of the gorge, and thence issuing 
for frontal attacks on the Beauport Flats — so called from the 
name of the village midway. Montcalm had chosen this as the 
chief line of defence, on the theory that the approach by the St. 
Charles would be the one selected by the invaders ; as, indeed, it long 
seemed to Wolf e the only possible path to the works of Upper Town. 

Westward of the city, upon the table-land, Bougainville headed 
a corps of observation, supposed continually to patrol the St. 
Lawrence cliff-tops and keep communications open with the in- 
terior; but this precaution failed in the hour of need. The 
height of Point Levis, across the river from the town, on the 
south bank, was unoccupied. Montcalm had wished to fortify 
this vantage-point, and thus block the river from both sides, 
but Vaudreuil had overruled him, and the result was fatal. Other 
weak points in the defence were divided command and the 
scarcity of food and ammunition, occasioned largely by Bigot's 
rapacious knavery. 

On June 26 the British fleet anchored off the Isle of Orleans, 
thus dissipating the fond hopes of the French that some disaster 
might prevent its approach. Three days later Wolfe's men, 
now encamped on the island at a safe distance from Montcalm's 
guns, made an easy capture of Point Levis, and there erected 
batteries which commanded the town. British ships were, in 
consequence, soon able to pass Quebec, under cover of the Point 
Levis guns, and destroy some of the French shipping anchored 
in the upper basin; while landing parties harried the country to 
the west, forcing habitants to neutrality and intercepting supplies. 
Frequently the British forces were, upon these various enter- 
prises, divided into three or four isolated divisions, which might 
have been roughly handled by a venturesome foe. But Mont- 
calm rigidly maintained the policy of defence, his only. offensive 
operations being the unsuccessful despatch of fire-ships against 
the invading fleet, 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 417 

On his part, Wolfe made several futile attacks upon the Beau- 
port redoubts. The position was, however, too strong for him 
to master, and in one assault (July 31) he lost half of his landing 
party — nearly five hundred killed, wounded, and missing.* This 
continued ill-success fretted Wolfe and at last quite disheartened 
him, for the season was rapidly wearing on, and winter sets in 
early at Quebec; moreover, nothing had yet been heard of Am- 
herst. There was, indeed, some talk of waiting until another 
season. However, more and more British ships worked their 
way past the fort, and, by making frequent feints of landing at 
widely separated points, caused Bougainville great annoyance. 
Montcalm was accordingly obliged to weaken his lower forces by 
sending reinforcements to the plains west of the city. Thus, 
while Wolfe was pining, French uneasiness was growing, for the 
British were now intercepting supplies and reinforcements from 
both above and below, and Bougainville's men were growing 
weary of constantly patrolling fifteen or twenty miles of cliffs. f 

Meanwhile, let us see how Amherst was faring. At the end 
of June the general assembled five thousand provincials and 
six thousand five hundred regulars at the head of Lake George. 
He had previously despatched Brigadier Prideaux with five 
thousand regulars and provincials to reduce Niagara, and Brigadier 
Stanwix, who had been of Bradstreet's party the year before, to 
succor Pittsburg, now in imminent danger from French bush- 
rangers and Indians who were swarming at Presque Isle, Le Bceuf , 
and Venango. 

Amherst himself moved slowly, it being July 21 before the army 
started northward upon the lake. Bourlamaque, whose sole 
purpose was to delay the British advance, lay at Ticonderoga 
with three thousand five hundred men, but on the 26th he blew 
up the fort and retreated in good order to Crown Point. On the 
British approaching that post he again fell back, this time to a 
strong position at Isle aux Noix, at the outlet of Lake Champlain, 
where, wrote Bourlamaque to a friend, " we are entrenched to the 
teeth, and armed with a hundred pieces of cannon." | Amherst 
now deeming vessels essential, yet lacking ship-carpenters, it 
was the middle of September before his little navy was ready, 
and then he thought the season too far advanced for further 
operations. § Amherst's advance had, however, induced Mont- 

* Authorities cited in Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, II., 233, 234. For 
details, consult Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, II., chap. vi. 

t See Bougainville's correspondence, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of 
Quebec, IV., 1-141. 

% September 22, 1759, quoted in Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, 11., 249. 

§ Official journal of Amherst, in London Magazine, XXVIL, 379-383. 



418 THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 

calm to defend Montreal, Levis having been despatched thither 
for this purpose. 

Prideaux, advancing up the Mohawk, proceeded to Oswego, 
where he left half of his men to cover his retreat, and then sailed 
to Niagara. Slain by accident during the siege, his place was 
taken by Sir William Johnson, the Indian commander, who 
pushed the work with vigor. Suddenly confronted by a French 
force of thirteen hundred rangers and savages from the west, 
who had been deflected thither from a proposed attack on Pitts- 
burg, with the view of recovering that fort, Johnson completely 
vanquished them (July 24). The discomfited crew burned their 
posts in that region and retreated precipitately to Detroit. The 
following day Niagara surrendered, and thus, with Pittsburg 
also saved, the west was entirely cut off from Canada, and the 
upper Ohio Valley was placed in British hands. The work of 
Stanwix having been accomplished by Johnson, the former, who 
had been greatly delayed by transport difficulties, advanced as 
promptly as possible to the Forks of the Ohio, and in the place 
of the old French works built the modernized stronghold of Fort 
Pitt.* 

On August 20, Wolfe fell seriously ill. Both he and the army 
were discouraged. The casualties had thus far been over eight 
hundred men, and disease had cut a wide swath through the 
ranks. Desperate, he at last accepted the counsel of his officers, 
that a landing be attempted above the town, supplies definitively 
cut off from Montreal, and Montcalm forced to fight or surrender. 
From September 3 to 12, Wolfe, arisen from his bed but still weak, 
quietly withdrew his troops from the Montmorenci camp and 
transported them in vessels which successfully passed through 
a heavy cannonading from the fort to safe anchorage in the upper 
basin. Reinforcements marching along the southern bank, from 
Point Levis, soon joined their comrades aboard the ships. For 
several days this portion of the fleet regularly floated up and down 
the river above Quebec, with the changing tide, thus wearing out 
Bougainville's men, who in great perplexity followed the enemy 
along the cliff-tops, through a beat of several leagues, until from 
sheer exhaustion they at last became careless. 

On the evening of September 12, Saunders — whose admirable 
handling of the fleet deserves equal recognition with the services 
of Wolfe — commenced a heavy bombardment of the Beauport 
lines, and feigned a general landing at that place. Montcalm, 
not knowing that the majority of the British were by this time 
above the town, and deceived as to his enemy's real intent, hur- 
ried to Beauport the bulk of his troops, save those necessary for 

* Stanwix to Pitt, November 20, 1759, MS. in Public Record Office. 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 



419 



Bougainville's rear guard. Meanwhile, however, Wolfe was pre- 
paring for his desperate attempt several miles up the river. 

Before daylight the following morning (September 13), thirty 
boats containing seventeen hundred picked men, with Wolfe at 
their head, floated down the stream under the dark shadow of 
the apparently insurmountable cliffs. They were challenged by 
sentinels along the shore; but, by pretending to be a provision 
convoy which had been expected from up-country, suspicion was 
disarmed. About two miles above Quebec they landed at an 
indentation then known as Anse du Foulon, but now called Wolfe's 
Cove. From the narrow beach a small, winding path, sighted by 




SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 



Wolfe two days before, led up through the trees and underbrush 
to the Plains of Abraham. The climbing party of twenty-four 
infantrymen found the path obstructed by an abattis and trenches ; 
but, nothing daunted, they clambered up the height of two hun- 
dred feet by the aid of stunted shrubs, reached the top, overcame 
the weak and cowardly guard of a hundred men, made way for 
their comrades, and by sunrise forty-five hundred men of the 
British army were drawn up across the plateau before the walls of 
Quebec* 

Montcalm, ten miles away on the other side of the St. Charles, 
was amazed at the daring feat, but by nine o'clock had massed 
his troops and confronted his enemy. The battle was brief but 
desperate. The intrepid Wolfe fell on the field — "the only 
British general," declared Horace Walpole, "belonging to the 
reign of George the Second, who can be said to have earned a last- 

* [There was one regular regiment of American origin with Wolfe, the "Royal 
Americans," represented by their second and third battalions. One battalion 
was left to guard the landing. The superior officers of this regiment were 
English. There seem to have been also some provincial rangers, although the 
famous Robert Rogers was not present. — Editor]. 



420 THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 

ing reputation."* Montcalm, mortally wounded, was carried 
by his fleeing comrades within the city, where he died before 
morning. During the seven hours' battle, the British had lost 
fifty-eight killed and five hundred and ninety-seven wounded, 
about twenty per cent, of the firing-line; the French lost about 
twelve hundred killed, wounded, and prisoners, of whom perhaps 
a fourth were killed. f 

Torn by disorder, the militia mutinous, the walls in ruins from 
the cannonading of the British fleet, and Vaudreuil and his fellows 
fleeing to the interior, the helpless garrison of Quebec surrendered, 
September 17, the British troops entering the following day. The 
English flag now floated over the citadel, and soon there was 
great rejoicing throughout Great Britain and her American col- 
onies; and well there might be, for the affair on the Plains of 
Abraham was one of the most heroic and far-reaching achieve- 
ments ever wrought by Englishmen in any land or age. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, 

BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF QUEBEC, 1759, AND THE 

BATTLE OF YORKTOWN, 1781. 

a.d. 1760. Accession of George III. to throne of England. The 
English capture Montreal. 

1761. American commerce and industry closely restricted by 
enforcement of navigation laws, acts of trade, and writs of as- 
sistance. Protests of James Otis and Patrick Henry. 

1762. England declares war against Spain and captures 
Havana. 

1763. Treaty of Paris and cession of Canada and other French 
possessions to England. [See pp. 296-297.] End of the Seven 
Years' War. Florida ceded to England by Spain; Louisiana 
ceded to Spain by France. Pontiac's War intended to check 
settlement west of Pittsburg. 

1765. Passage of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament, 
followed by American protests. 

1766. Repeal of the Stamp Act. 

1767. The British Parliament, by the Townshend Acts, imposes 
duties on paper, glass, tea, etc., imported into America. 

1769. Massachusetts House of Representatives refuses to pay 
for quartering British troops. Defeat of Paoli and subjection of 
Corsica by the French. 

1770. "Boston Massacre" — British soldiers, provoked by citi- 
zens, kill three and wound several. 

* Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, II., 237. 

f Ibid., II., 332, with detailed British returns; Wood, Fight for Canada, 262. 



THE FALL OF QUEBEC. 421 

1772. First partition of Poland between Russia, Austria, and 
Prussia. Samuel Adams actively advocates independence in 
Boston. British ship, the Gaspee, burned by Rhode Islanders, 
Virginia Assembly appoints Committee of Correspondence to 
keep in touch with other colonies. 

1773. "Boston Tea-party" — taxed tea from England thrown 
overboard in Boston harbor by disguised Americans. 

1774. Five oppressive Acts, including Boston Port Bill, passed 
by British Parliament. General Gage, commissioned as Governor, 
comes to Boston with additional British troops. A Congress 
meets in Philadelphia, with delegates from all colonies except 
Georgia, and issues a "Declaration of Rights," frames Articles of 
Association, and indorses opposition of Massachusetts to the 
Oppressive Acts of Parliament. 

1775. General Gage sends troops to destroy supplies gathered 
at Concord. Battles of Lexington and Concord. North Caro- 
lina the first to instruct delegates to Congress for independence. 
Battle of Bunker Hill. Seizure of Ticonderoga and occupation of 
Crown Point by Americans. Washington takes command of the 
army at Cambridge. The Americans capture Montreal. Arnold 
repulsed at Quebec and Montgomery killed. 

1776. Declaration of Independence. Battles of Long Island 
and White Plains, in which the Americans are defeated. Oc- 
cupation of New York by the British. Battle of Trenton and 
defeat of the Hessians. 

1777. Victory of Washington at Princeton. American victory 
at Bennington. Howe defeats Washington at the Brandywine. 
The British enter Philadelphia, and Washington is repulsed at 
Germantown. Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga. [See pp. 298- 
326.] Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation. Wash- 
ington establishes winter headquarters at Valley Forge. 

1778. France acknowledges the independence of the United 
States and declares war against England. French fleet arrives in 
Delaware Bay. Battles of Monmouth and Rhode Island. Beginning 
of the War of the Bavarian Succession between Austria and Prussia. 

1779. Americans, under Wayne, storm Stony Point. Paul 
Jones, in Bon Homme Richard, captures Serapis off Flamborough 
Head, England. Ending of the War of the Bavarian Succession. 

1780. British victorious at Charleston and Camden, South Caro- 
lina. Defeat of the British at King's Mountain. Benedict 
Arnold turns traitor, and agrees to deliver West Point to the 
British. Capture and execution of Andre. The British admiral 
Rodney defeats the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. 

1781. The Americans are victorious at Cowpens, South Carolina, 
and are defeated at Guilford Court House, North Carolina. Corn- 
wallis retires to Yorktown after unsuccessful pursuit of Lafayette. 



422 YORKTOWN. 



CHAPTER II. 

YORKTOWN AND THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS, 1781. 

The year 1781 opened with small promise of a speedy ending of the American 
struggle for independence. New York remained in the hands of the English. 
Cornwallis was confident of success in the South. But Greene's brilliant cam- 
paigning and Lafayette's strategy left Cornwallis with a wearied army devoid 
of any fruits of victory, and finally returning to the seaboard, he settled him- 
self at Yorktown. Washington, before New York, had watched the southern 
campaigns closely. Word came from the Count de Grasse that the French 
fleet under his command was ready to leave the West Indies and join in 
operations in Virginia. Washington at once planned a new campaign, des- 
tined to prove of peculiar brilliancy. He was joined by Rochambeau's French 
army from Newport. Clinton, the British commander in New York, was 
tricked into believing that the city was to be closely besieged. But the Amer- 
ican and French armies, six thousand strong, passed by New York in a race 
through Princeton and Philadelphia to Chesapeake Bay, which they reached 
on September 5, the day that de Grasse entered with his fleet to join the other 
French fleet which had been set free from Newport. De Grasse maintained 
his command of Chesapeake Bay in spite of the futile attack of Admiral Graves 
and the British fleet. If Rodney, who had sailed for England, had been 
in Graves's place the outcome might have been different. A defeat of de 
Grasse would have meant British control of the water and a support for Corn- 
wallis, which would have saved his army and ruined Washington's plans. 
Yorktown affords one of the striking illustrations in Captain Mahan's Influence 
of Sea Power upon History.— EDITOR. 



The allied American and French armies joined Lafayette at 
Williamsburg, Virginia, September 25, 1781, and on the 27th 
there was a besieging army there of sixteen thousand men, under 
the chief command of Washington, assisted by Rochambeau. 
The British force, about half as numerous, were mostly behind 
intrenchments at Yorktown. On the arrival of Washington and 
Rochambeau at Williamsburg they proceeded to the Ville de Paris, 
de Grasse's flag-ship, to congratulate the admiral on his victory 
over the British admiral Graves on the 5th, which had prevented 
British relief of Yorktown by sea, and to make specific arrange- 
ments for the future. Preparations for the siege were immediately 



YORKTOWN. 



423 



begun. The allied armies marched from Williamsburg (September 
28), driving in the British outposts as they approached Yorktown, 
and taking possession of abandoned works. The allies formed a 
semicircular line about two miles from the British intrenchments, 




each wing resting on the York River, and on the 30th the place was 
completely invested. The British at Gloucester, opposite, were 
imprisoned by French dragoons under the Duke de Lauzun, Vir- 
ginia militia, led by General Weedon, and eight hundred French 
marines. Only once did the imprisoned troops attempt to escape 
28 



424 YORKTOWN. 

from that point. Tarleton's legion sallied out, but were soon 
driven back by de Lauzun's cavalry, who made Tarleton's horse 
a prisoner and came near capturing his owner. 

In the besieging lines before Yorktown the French troops 
occupied the left, the West India troops of St. Simon being on the 
extreme flank. The Americans were on the right; and the French 
artillery, with the quarters of the two commanders, occupied the 
centre. The American artillery, commanded by General Knox, 
was with the right. The fleet of de Grasse was in Lynn Haven 
Bay to beat off any vessels that might attempt to relieve Corn- 
wallis. On the night of October 6 heavy ordnance was brought 
up from the French ships, and trenches were begun at six hundred 
yards from the British works. The first parallel was completed 
before the morning of the 7th, under the direction of General 
Lincoln; and on the afternoon of the 9th several batteries and re- 
doubts were finished, and a general discharge of heavy guns was 
opened by the Americans on the right. Early on the morning of 
the 10th the French opened several batteries on the left. That 
evening the same troops hurled red-hot balls upon British vessels 
in the river, which caused the destruction by fire of several of 
them — one a forty-four-gun ship. 

The allies began the second parallel on the night of the 11th, 
which the British did not discover until daylight came, when they 
brought several heavy guns to bear upon the diggers. On the 
14th it was determined to storm two of the redoubts which were 
most annoying, as they commanded the trenches. One on the 
right, near the York River, was garrisoned by forty-five men; the 
other, on the left, was manned by about one hundred and twenty 
men. The capture of the former was intrusted to Americans led 
by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and that of the latter 
to French grenadiers led by Count Deuxponts. At a given signal 
Hamilton advanced in two columns — one led by Major Fish, the 
other by Lieutenant-Colonel Gimat, Lafayette's aide, while Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel John Laurens, with eighty men, proceeded to turn 
the redoubt to intercept a retreat of the garrison. So agile and 
furious was the assault that the redoubt was carried in a few 
minutes, with little loss on either side. Laurens was among the 
first to enter the redoubt, and make the commander, Major Camp- 
bell, a prisoner. The life of every man who ceased to resist was 
spared. 

Meanwhile the French, after a severe struggle, in which they 
lost about one hundred men in killed and wounded, captured the 
other redoubt. Washington, with Knox and some others, had 
watched the movements with intense anxiety, and when the com- 
mander-in-chief saw both redoubts in possession of his troops he 
turned and said to Knox, "The work is done, and well done." 



YORKTOWN. 425 

That night both redoubts were included in the second parallel. 
The situation of Cornwallis was now critical. He was surrounded 
by a superior force, his works were crumbling, and he saw that 
when the second parallel of the besiegers should be completed 
and the cannon on their batteries mounted his post at Yorktown 
would become untenable, and he resolved to attempt an escape by 
abandoning the place, his baggage, and his sick, cross the York 
River, disperse the allies who environed Gloucester, and by rapid 
marches gain the forks of the Rappahannock and Potomac, and, 
forcing his way by weight of numbers through Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, join Clinton at New York. 

Boats for the passage of the river were prepared and a part of 
the troops passed over, when a furious storm suddenly arose and 
made any further attempts to cross too hazardous to be under- 
taken. The troops were brought back, and Cornwallis lost hope. 
After that the bombardment of his lines was continuous, severe, 
and destructive, and on the 17th he offered to make terms for 
surrender. On the following day Lieutenant-Colonel de Laurens 
and Viscount de Noailles (a kinsman of Madame Lafayette), as 
commissioners of the allies, met Lieutenant-Colonel Dundas and 
Major Ross, of the British army, at the house of the Widow 
Moore to arrange terms for capitulation. They were made 
similar to those demanded of Lincoln at Charleston eighteen 
months before. The capitulation was duly signed, October 19, 
1781, and late on the afternoon of the same day Cornwallis, his 
army, and public property were surrendered to the allies.* 

For the siege of Yorktown the French provided thirty-seven 
ships-of-the-line, and the Americans nine. The Americans fur- 
nished nine thousand land troops (of whom fifty-five hundred 
were regulars), and the French seven thousand. Among the 
prisoners were two battalions of Anspachers, amounting to ten 
hundred and twenty-seven men, and two regiments of Hessians, 
numbering eight hundred and seventy-five. The flag of the An- 
spachers was given to Washington by the Congress. 

The news of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown spread 
great joy throughout the colonies, especially at Philadelphia, the 
seat of the national government. Washington sent Lieutenant- 
Colonel Tilghman to Congress with the news. He rode express 
to Philadelphia to carry the despatches of the chief announcing 
the joyful event. He entered the city at midnight, October 23, and 
knocked so violently at the door of Thomas McKean, the president 
of Congress, that a watchman was disposed to arrest him. Soon 

* For the text of the articles of capitulation, and the general return of the 
officers and privates surrendered, see Harper's Encyclopedia of United States. 
History, X. 



426 YORKTOWN. 

the glad tidings spread over the city. The watchman, proclaim- 
ing the hour and giving the usual cry, "All's well," added, "and 
Cornwallis is taken!" Thousands of citizens rushed from their 
beds, half-dressed, and filled the streets. The old State-house bell, 
that had clearly proclaimed independence, now rang out tones 
of gladness. Lights were seen moving in every house. The first 
blush of morning was greeted with the booming of cannon, and 
at an early hour the Congress assembled and with quick-beating 
hearts heard Charles Thompson read the despatch from Washing- 
ton. At its conclusion it was resolved to go in a body to the 
Lutheran church, at 2 p.m., and "return thanks to the Almighty 
God for crowning the allied armies of the United States and France 
with success."* 

ii. 

THE RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. 

By Claude Halstead Van Tyne, Ph.D. 

The surrender of Cornwallis came at the right time to produce 
a great political effect in England. The war had assumed such 
tremendous proportions that accumulated disaster seemed to 
threaten the ruin of Great Britain. From India came news of 
Hyder Ali's temporary successes, and of the presence of a strong 
French armament which demanded that England yield every 
claim except to Bengal. That Warren Hastings and Sir Eyre 
Coote would yet save the British empire there, the politicians 
could not foresee. Spain had already driven the British forces 
from Florida, and in the spring of 1782 Minorca fell before her 
repeated assaults and Gibraltar was fearfully beset. De Grasse's 
successes during the winter in the West Indies left only Jamaica, 
Barbadoes, and Antigua in British hands. St. Eustatius, too, was 
recaptured, and it was not until the middle of April that Rodney 
regained England's naval supremacy by a famous victory near 
Marie-Galante.f England had not a friend in Europe, and was 
beset at home by violent agitation in Ireland, to which she was 
obliged to yield an independent Irish Parliament-! Rodney's 
victory and the successful repulsion of the Spaniards from Gib- 

*A detailed description of the topography and events of the Yorktown 
campaign is afforded in Lossing's Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution, II., 
chap. xii. An elaborate and authoritative study from a military point of view 
is provided in The Yorktown Campaign, by Henry P. Johnston. Both histories 
are published by Harper & Brothers. 

t Annual Register, XXV., 252-257. 

% Two Centuries of Irish History, 91. 



YORKTOWN. 427 

raltar, in the summer of 1782, came too late to save the North 
ministry. 

The negotiations between the English and American peace en- 
voys dragged on. Congress had instructed the commissioners 
not to make terms without the approval of the French court, but 
the commissioners became suspicious of Vergennes, broke their 
instructions, and dealt directly and solely with the British envoys. 
Boundaries, fishery questions, treatment of the American loyalists, 
and settlement of American debts to British subjects were settled 
one after another, and November 30, 1782, a provisional treaty 
was signed. The definitive treaty was delayed until September 
3, 1783, after France and England had agreed upon terms of 
peace.* 

America awaited the outcome almost with lethargy. After 
Yorktown the country relapsed into indifference, and Washington 
was left helpless to do anything to assure victory. He could only 
wait and hope that the enemy was as exhausted as America. 
Disorganization was seen everywhere — in politics, in finance, and 
in the army. Peace came like a stroke of good-fortune rather 
than a prize that was won. Congress (January 14, 1784) could 
barely assemble a quorum to ratify the treaty, f 

During the war many had feared that British victory would 
mean the overthrow in England of constitutional liberty. The 
defeat, therefore, of the king's purpose in America seemed a vic- 
tory for liberalism in England as well as in America. Personal 
government was overthrown, and no British king has gained such 
power since. The dangers to freedom of speech and of the press 
were ended. Corruption and daring disregard of public law re- 
ceived a great blow. The ancient course of English constitutional 
development was resumed. England never, it is true, yielded to 
her colonies what America had demanded in 1775, but she did 
learn to handle the affairs of her colonies with greater diplomacy, 
and she does not allow them now to get into such an unsym- 
pathetic state. 

Great Britain herself was not so near ruin as she seemed ; she was 
still to be the mother of nations, and the English race was not 
weakened though the empire was broken. In political, social, 
and intellectual spirit England and America continued to be much 
the same. English notions of private and public law still persisted 
in independent America. The large influence which the Anglo- 
Saxon race had long had upon the world's destiny was not left 
with either America or England alone, but with them both. 
America only continued England's " manifest destiny " in Amer- 

* Treaties and Conventions, 370, 375. 

if Journals o] Congress, January 13, 14, 1784. 



428 YORKTOWN. 

ica, pushing her language, modes of political and intellectual ac- 
tivity, and her social customs westward and southward — driving 
back Latin civilization in the same resistless way as before the Rev- 
olution. 

For America much good came out of the Revolution. Amer- 
icans had acted together in a great crisis, and Washington's efforts 
in the army to banish provincial distinctions did much to create 
fellow-feeling, which would make real union possible. With laws 
and governments alike, and the same predominant language, 
together with common political and economic interests, future 
unity seemed assured. 

The republican form of government was now given a strong 
foothold in America. Frederick the Great asserted that the new 
republic could not endure, because " a republican government had 
never been known to exist for any length of time where the terri- 
tory was not limited and concentrated/' yet America, within a 
century, was to make it a success over a region three times as 
great as the territory for which Frederick foretold failure.* 



SYNOPSIS OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, BE- 
TWEEN THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN, 1781, AND 
THE BATTLES OF VICKSBURG AND 
GETTYSBURG, 1863. 

Note. — For synopses of European events between Yorktown and Water- 
loo, see page 326 and pages 341-343. Down to Waterloo the dates below relate 
only to American events. 

a.d. 1783. Peace of Versailles. Great Britain recognizes the 
independence of the United States, restores Florida and Minorca 
to Spain, and cedes Tobago to France. 

1791. Defeat of the Americans, under St. Clair, by the Miami 
Indians. Insurrection of the blacks against the French in Hayti. 

1794. Wayne defeats the Indians near Maumee Rapids, Ohio. 

1798. The United States prepares for war with France. Some 
fighting at sea, but friendly relations soon re-established. 

1800. Retrocession of Louisiana to France by Spain. 

1801. War between Tripoli and the United States. 

1803. Purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States. 
1812. War between the United States and England. The Amer- 
icans, under Hull, invade Canada. Hull is besieged, and surren- 

* For the complete history of the American struggle for independence, see 
Prof. Van Tyne's The American Revolution, IX., in The American Nation. 
Harper & Brothers. 



YORKTOWN. 429 

ders Detroit. Many brilliant single ship actions won by the 
Americans. 

1813. The Americans capture York (Toronto), and the British 
are repulsed at Sackett's Harbor. Victory of the Americans, 
under Perry, on Lake Erie. 

1814. American frigate Essex captured by Phoebe and Cherub 
at Valparaiso. The Americans, under Scott and Brown, are 
victorious at Lundy's Lane, and McDonough wins the naval 
battle of Lake Champlain. Washington captured by the British 
on August 1, and public buildings burned. Under the Treaty of 
Ghent, peace between the United States and Great Britain is de- 
clared, December 24. 

1815. Jackson defeats the British at New Orleans. Commodore 
Decatur imposes terms upon the Dey of Algiers. Napoleon 
escapes from Elba, and Louis XVIII. is obliged to seek refuge in 
flight. The campaign of the "Hundred Days." Napoleon is de- 
feated at Waterloo by Wellington and Blucher. (See pages 344- 
407.) Second abdication of Napoleon, and return of Louis XVIII. 
Napoleon exiled to the island of St. Helena. Formation of the 
"Holy Alliance " between Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Second 
Peace of Paris. Congress of Vienna reorganizes political system 
of Europe. 

FROM WATERLOO TO VICKSBURG. 

1818. Congress of Powers at Aix-la-Chapelle. Foreign armies 
withdraw from France. Campaign of Andrew Jackson against 
Seminoles and occupation of Pensacola. 

1819. Treaty between the United States and Spain for the 
cession of Florida. (Formal possession given to the United States 
in 1821.) A new revolution in Mexico, headed by Iturbide, se- 
cures the independence of that country. The colonies of Central 
America declare themselves independent of Spain. Colombia and 
Peru also throw off the Spanish yoke. 

1820. George IV. ascends throne of England. Insurrection in 
Naples and Sicily. Ferdinand I. deposed. 

1821. Congress of European Powers at Laibach. Ferdinand I. 
restored by Austrians. Outbreak of Greek revolution. Revolu- 
tion headed by Iturbide in Mexico gains independence of country. 
Central American colonies declare independence of Spain. Death 
of Napoleon. Brazil declares independence of Portugal. 

1822. Proclamation of Greek independence. 

1823. French invasion of Spain to restore Ferdinand VII. 
President Monroe declares against European interference with 
independent governments in the Western hemisphere. 

1824. War between England and Burmah. The victory of 



430 YORKTOWN. 

General Sucre at Ayacucho destroys the last vestige of Spanish 
dominion in South America. 

1826. Capture of Missolonghi by Turks, who occupy Athens. 
War between Russia and Persia. 

1827. The allied (British, French, and Russian) fleets destroy 
the Turkish-Egyptian fleet at Navarino. 

1828. War between Russia and Turkey. 

1829. Peace of Adrianople between Russia and Turkey. The 
latter agrees to recognize the independence of Greece. 

1830. The French begin the subjection of Algeria. Revolution 
in Paris. Flight of Charles X. Louis Philippe declared King. 
Outbreak of Belgian insurrection. Independence of Belgium rec- 
ognized. Revolution in Poland. 

1831. Garrison begins publication of Liberator in Boston, at- 
tacking slavery. Subjection of Poland by Russia. 

1832. Black Hawk's war closed by his defeat in Wisconsin. 
Liberation of Belgium. 

1833. Revolutionary attempt at Frankfort. Carlist insurrection 
in Spain. Dom Pedro enters Lisbon and proclaims himself Regent. 

1835. Outbreak of second war with Seminoles. Migration of 
Boers from Cape Colony begins. 

1836. Santa Anna, President of Mexico, commands at siege and 
storming of the Alamo, near San Antonio, Texas. Santa Anna 
defeated and captured, April 21, 22, by Houston, who is elected 
President of Texas. 

1837. Carlist warfare in Spain. Russians defeated in Caucasus. 
Persians besiege Herat. 

1838. Espartero defeats Carlists. 

1839. Chartist riots in England. War between Turkey and 
Egypt. British invasion of Afghanistan. 

1840. Marriage of Queen Victoria with Prince Albert of Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha. Louis Napoleon at Boulogne makes vain at- 
tempt at insurrection. End of the Carlist insurrection in Spain. 
Outbreak of the opium war between England and China. 

1841. Mehemet Ali makes peace with Sultan of Turkey, and is 
recognized as tributary ruler of Egypt. Afghan insurrection and 
massacres. 

1842. War with Seminoles terminated. Northeastern boun- 
dary of United States and other disputed points settled by Ash- 
burton Treaty with England. British army annihilated by 
Afghans in Kurd-Cabul Pass. British occupation of Shanghai, 
followed by treaty of Nankin and China's cession of Hong-Kong 
to England. The British occupy Natal, Boer republic. 

1843. Sir Charles Napier conquers Sinde, which is annexed to 
British India. 

1845. Outbreak of first Sikh war in India. 



YORKTOWN. 431 

1846. War between the United States and Mexico. The Amer- 
icans win the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and 
capture Monterey. Northwestern boundary of United States set- 
tled by treaty with England. Sir Hugh Gough defeats Sikhs, 
who cede much territory to the East India Company. 

1847. The Mexicans are defeated at Buena Vista. Storming 
of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, and entry of the American 
forces into the City of Mexico. 

1848. Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo between the United States 
and Mexico. Formation of first Free-Soil party in United States. 
Outbreak of the first Schleswig-Holstein war in Germany, the 
people of the duchies rising in insurrection against the King of 
Denmark. The Hungarian Revolution, under Kossuth, begins. 
Abdication of Louis Philippe in France. Insurrections through- 
out the Continent. Chartist demonstrations in England. France 
adopts Republican constitution, and Louis Napoleon is elected 
President. The Governor of Cape Colony attacks the Boers of 
Orange River, many of whom retire to the Transvaal. Discovery 
of gold in California. 

1849. Revolutionary movements in Germany and Italy. 
Austrians defeat King of Sardinia. The French aid the papal 
power. Garibaldi defeats Neapolitans. The surrender of Gorgey 
brings the Hungarian revolution to a close. 

1850. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty concluded between United States 
and Great Britain regarding water route across Central America. 
Outbreak of Taiping Rebellion in China. 

1851. Close of the first Schleswig-Holstein war. Coup oVetat 
in France. Louis Napoleon dissolves Assembly, and is elected 
President for ten years. 

1852. Another plebiscite in France on re-establishment of em- 
pire. Louis Napoleon proclaimed Emperor as Napoleon III. 
British victories in Burmah. 

1853. Friction between Turkey and Russia. England and 
France support the Sultan. 

1854. France and England declare war against Russia (the 
Crimean War). The allies win the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, 
and Inkerman. Repeal of Missouri Compromise, limiting slave 
territory in United States, and passage of Kansas-Nebraska bill 
making slavery optional in new territories. Commodore Perry, in 
behalf of United States, makes treaty with Japan, providing for 
commercial intercourse with outer world. 

1855. Fall of Sebastopol. 

1856. The Treaty of Paris terminates the Crimean War. Civil 
war in Kansas. 

1857. Outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny in British India. The 
massacre at Cawnpore, and the relief of Lucknow, 



432 YORKTOWN. 

1858. Suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny. Government of 
India transferred to the Crown. 

1859. John Brown seizes Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in attempt 
to incite an insurrection among the slaves, and is captured and 
hanged. Victor Emanuel, of Sardinia, in alliance with France, en- 
ters upon a war with Austria. The allies are victorious at Magenta 
and Solferino. The Treaty of Zurich terminates the war. 

1860. Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States. 
Secession of South Carolina from the American Union. The 
victories of Garibaldi extend the Italian dominions of Victor 
Emmanuel. English-French expedition occupies Pekin. 

1861. Secession of Mississippi, January 9, rapidly followed by 
other Southern States. Confederate Congress at Montgomery, 
Alabama, elects Jefferson Davis President of Confederate States 
of America, February 9. Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as 
President of the United States, March 4. Bombardment of Fort 
Sumter by the Confederates, April 12-14. First battle of Bull 
Run, July 21, results in a Federal retreat. 

1862. Engagement of the Monitor and the Merrimac at Hampton 
Roads. Farragut passes the Mississippi forts, and New Orleans 
falls into the hands of the Federals. Second battle of Bull Run, 
resulting in a victory for the Confederates. Battle of Antietam, 
a Federal victory, but with heavy losses. Battle of Fredericks- 
burg, the Federals being repulsed. France declares war against 
Mexico. 

1863. Proclamation of President Lincoln abolishing slavery. 
The Confederates win the battle of Chancellorsville. General 
Grant wins the battle of Black River and invests Vicksburg. 
French troops occupy the City of Mexico and the crown is offered 
to the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. 



VICKSBURG. 433 



CHAPTER III. 

VICKSBURG (JANUARY-JULY, 1863). 

In the American Civil War, 1861-65, the capture of Vicksburg, on the Missis- 
sippi, cut the Confederacy in two, and the battle of Gettysburg proved a Con- 
federate invasion of the North impossible. Out of the many great battles of 
that war, it is historically essential that these two should be emphasized. 

After Fort Sumter was fired upon, April 12, 1861, the relative efficiency of 
the South and the unpreparedness of the North were soon illustrated in the 
battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. In the east, where the main objective 
point of the Northern attack was Richmond, there followed McClellan's organ- 
ization of the Army of the Potomac. In the west were Halleck and Buell, with 
headquarters at St. Louis and Louisville, and the main end in view in the west- 
ern campaign was the control of the Mississippi. February, 1862, brought North- 
ern successes in the western campaign in Grant's capture of Forts Henry and 
Donelson, followed by Shiloh, Corinth, and Memphis, which opened the Mis- 
sissippi to Vicksburg. At the same time Farragut's fleet in the south captured 
New Orleans, a victory which, like the effect of the blockade throughout the 
war, was a weighty demonstration of the influence of sea-power upon history. 
After Farragut had cleared the lower river, it was practically Vicksburg alone 
which remained to unite the eastern and western territory of the Confederacy. 
But in the east there had been a series of Northern disasters, culminating in 
Chancellorsville. — Editor. 

When the defeated Federals recrossed the Rappahannock, 
May 5, 1863, after Chancellorsville, the fortunes of the North 
were at the lowest ebb. Then came the turning of the tide, and 
in an unexpected quarter. General Grant had shot up into 
fame through his capture of Fort Donelson, early in 1862, but had 
done little thereafter to confirm his reputation. Though in 
responsible command in northern Mississippi and southwestern 
Tennessee, the few successes there which the country could ap- 
preciate went to the credit of his subordinate, Rosecrans. The 
world remembered his shiftlessness before the war, and began to 
believe that his success had been accidental. All things con- 
sidered, it is strange that Grant had been kept in place. The 
pressure for his removal had been great everywhere, but his 
superiors stood by him faithfully, though Lincoln's persistence 
\v;is maintained in the midst of misgivings. 

In the fall of 1862, Grant, in command of fifty thousand men, 



434 VICKSBURG. 

purposed to continue the advance southward through Mississippi, 
flanking Vicksburg, which then must certainly fall. His supplies 
must come over the Memphis & Charleston road and the two 
weak and disabled lines of railroad, the Mississippi Central and the 
Mobile & Ohio. To guard one hundred and fifty miles of railroad 
in a hostile country the army must necessarily be scattered, as 
every bridge, culvert, and station needed a detail. From Wash- 
ington came unwise interference; but he moved on with vigor. 
As winter approached, he pushed into Mississippi towards Jack- 
son. If that place could be seized, Vicksburg, fifty miles west, 
must become untenable, and to this end Grant desired to unite 
his whole force. He was overruled, and the troops divided: 
while he marched on Jackson, Sherman, with thirty-two thousand, 
was to proceed down the river from Memphis. Grant's hope 
was that he and Sherman, both near Vicksburg and supporting 
each other, might act in concert. 

Complete failure attended this beginning. Forrest, operating 
in a friendly country, tore up the railroads in Grant's rear for 
scores of miles, capturing his detachments and working destruc- 
tion. On December 20, also, Van Dorn, now a cavalry leader, 
surprised Holly Springs, Grant's main depot in northern Mis- 
sissippi, carrying off and burning stores to the amount of 
$1,500,000.* Grant's movement southward became impossible: 
the army stood stripped and helpless, saving itself only by living 
off the country, an experience rough at the time, but out of 
which, later, came benefit. f Co-operation with Sherman could 
no longer be thought of. Nor could news of the disaster be sent 
to Sherman, who, following his orders, punctually embarked 
and steamed down to the mouth of the Yazoo; this he entered, 
and on December 29, believing that the garrison of Vicksburg 
had been drawn off to meet Grant, he flung his divisions against 
the Confederate lines at Chickasaw Bayou, with a loss of eighteen 
hundred men and no compensating advantage. $ 

The difficulty and disaster in the Mississippi campaign were 
increased by a measure which strikingly reveals the effect in war 
of political pressure at the capital. At the outbreak of the war, 
John A. McClernand was a member of Congress from Illinois, 
and later commanded a division at Donelson and Shiloh. Re- 
turning to Washington, he stood out as a War Democrat, a rep- 
resentative of a class whose adherence to the administration was 
greatly strained by the Emancipation Proclamation, and whose 
loyalty Lincoln felt it was almost vital to preserve. When, there- 

* War Records, Serial No. 24, p. 511. 
f Grant, Personal Memoirs, I., 411. 
j Sherman, Memoirs, I., 319. 



VICKSBURG. 435 

fore, he laid before Lincoln a scheme* to raise by his own in- 
influence a large force in the West, over which he was to have 
military command, with the intention of taking Vicksburg, Lin- 
coln and Stanton yielded, the sequel showing that McClernand 
was a soldier of little merit. . . . 

McClernand went West, and kept his promise by mustering into 
the service, chiefly through his personal influence, some thirty 
regiments, a welcome recruitment in those dark days. With this 
new army McClernand appeared at the mouth of the Yazoo just 
at the moment when Sherman emerged from the swamps with his 
crestfallen divisions. McClernand assumed command, Sherman 
subsiding into a subordinate place; but he had influence enough 
with his new superior to persuade him to proceed at once to an 
attack upon Arkansas Post, not far away.f This measure proved 
successful, the place capitulating January 11, 1863, with five 
thousand men and seventeen guns. Though the victory was due 
in great part to the navy, Sherman alone in the army having ren- 
dered conspicuous service, yet before the country the credit went 
to McClernand, nominally the commander, giving him an un- 
deserved prestige which made the situation worse. 

Grant often found Halleck very trying; but in the present ex- 
igency the superior stood stoutly by him, and probably saved to 
him his position. The military sense of the general-in-chief saw 
clearly the folly of a divided command, and he enlightened the 
president, who made Grant major-general in command of opera- 
tions on the Mississippi, McClernand being put at the head of a 
corps. January 30, therefore, Grant, suppressing a scheme en- 
tertained by McClernand for a campaign in Arkansas, set to work 
to solve the problem of opening the great river. 

Probably few generals have ever encountered a situation more 
difficult, or one in which military precedents helped so little. 
The fortress occupied a height commanding on the north and 
west, along the river, swampy bottom-lands, at the moment 
largely submerged or threaded with channels. These lowlands 
were much overgrown with canebrake and forest; roads there 
were almost none, the plantations established within the area 
being approached most conveniently by boats. But it was from 
the north and west, apparently, that Vicksburg must be assailed, 
for the region south of the city appeared quite beyond reach, 
since the batteries closed the river, which seemed the sole means 
of approach for northern forces. The surest approach to the 
stronghold was from the east; but there Grant had tried and failed ; 
public sentiment would not sustain another movement from that 

* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VII., 135. 
t Sherman, Memoirs, I., 324. 



436 VICKSBURG. 

side. There was nothing for it but to try by the north and west, 
and Grant grappled with the problem. 

Besides the natural obstacles, he had to take account of his 
own forces and the strength and character of his adversary. In 
November, 1862, Johnston, not yet recovered from the wounds 
received at Fair Oaks in May, was ordered to assume command 
in the west, taking the troops of Kirby Smith, Bragg, and the 
army defending the Mississippi. The latter force, up to that time 
under Van Dorn, was transferred to John C. Pemberton, of an 
old Pennsylvania family, before and after the war a citizen of 
Philadelphia. Though a Northerner, he had the entire confidence 
of both Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. His record in the 
old army was good; he was made lieutenant-general by the Con- 
federacy, and received most weighty responsibilities. He served 
bravely and faithfully the cause he had espoused; though out- 
classed in his campaign, he did not lack ability. Pemberton 
commanded some fifty thousand men, comprising not only the 
garrison of Vicksburg, but also that of Port Hudson, and de- 
tachments posted in northern Mississippi. On the watch at such 
a point as Jackson, the state capital, he could, on short notice, 
concentrate his scattered command to meet whatever danger 
might threaten. 

Against this alert adversary Grant could now oppose about an 
equal number of men, comprised in four corps — the Thirteenth 
(McClernand), Fifteenth (Sherman), Sixteenth (Hurlbut), Seven- 
teenth (McPherson). Hurlbut was of necessity retained at and 
near Memphis, to preserve communications and hold western 
Tennessee; the three other corps could take the field with about 
forty-three thousand. Among Grant's lieutenants, two were 
soldiers of the best quality — Sherman and James B. McPherson, 
the latter a young officer of engineers, who during the preceding 
months had been coming rapidly to the front.* Besides the 
army, Grant had a powerful auxiliary in the fleet, which now 
numbered seventy craft, large and small, manned by fifty-five 
hundred sailors and commanded by David D. Porter, an inde- 
fatigable chief. 

Grant at the outset could, of course, have no fixed plan. 
Throughout February and March his operations were tentative; 
and though the country murmured at his " inactivity,' ' never did 
general or army do harder work. Might not Vicksburg perhaps 
be isolated on the west, and a way be found beyond the reach of 
its cannon to that vantage-ground south of it which seemed so 
inaccessible? Straightway the army tried, with spade, pick, 
and axe, to complete the cut-off which Williams had begun the 

* Cullum, Register of Mil. Acad., art., McPherson. 



VICKSBURG. 437 

previous summer; also to open a tortuous and embarrassed pas- 
sage far round through Lake Providence and the Tensas and 
Washita rivers. Might not some insufficiently guarded approach 
be found through the Yazoo bottom* to Haines's Bluff, the 
height dominating Vicksburg from the northeast, which Sherman 
had sought to seize at Chickasaw Bayou? Straightway there 
were enterprises seldom attempted in war.f The levee at Yazoo 
Pass was cut, far up the river, so that the swollen Mississippi 
flooded the wide region below. Through the crevasse plunged 
gun-boat and transport, to engage in amphibious warfare; soldiers 
wading in the mire or swimming the bayous; divisions struggling 
to terra firma, only to find that Pemberton was there before them 
behind unassailable parapets; gun-boats wedged in ditches, un- 
able to turn, with hostile axemen blocking both advance and re- 
treat by felling trees across the channel ; Porter sheltering himself 
from sharp-shooters within a section of broken smokestack and 
meditating the blowing-up of his boats; Sherman now paddling 
in a canoe, now riding bareback, now joining the men of a rescue- 
party in a double-quick — all in cypress forests draped with 
funereal moss, as if Death had made ready for a calamity that 
seemed certain. 

April came, and nothing had been accomplished on the north 
or west. To try again from the east meant summary removal 
for the commander. Was an attack from the south, after all, out 
of the queston, as all his lieutenants urged? Grant resolved 
to try ; the river-bank to the west was so far dried that the passage 
of a column through the swamp-roads became possible. Porter 
was willing to attempt to run the batteries, though sure that, if 
once below, he could never return. The night of April 16 was one 
of wild excitements. The fleet was discovered as soon as it got 
under way, and conflagrations, blazing right and left, clearly 
revealed it as it swept down the stream. The Confederate fire 
could not be concentrated, J and hence the injury was small to the 
armored craft; and even the transports in their company, pro- 
tected only by baled hay or cotton, escaped with one exception. 
A few days later transports and barges again passed down. § 
The column, toiling along the swampy road, was met, when at 
last it reached a point well below the town, by an abundance of 
supplies and ample means for placing it on the other bank. April 
29, Grand Gulf, the southern outpost of Vicksburg, was can- 
nonaded, with ten thousand men on transports at hand for an 

* War Records, Serial No. 36, pp. 371-467. 
f Mahan, Gulf and Inland Waters, 110 et seq. 
% Johnston, Narrative, 152. 
§ War Records, Serial No. 36, pp. 565 et seq. 



438 VICKSBURG. 

assault, if the chance came. High on its bluff, it defied the bom- 
bardment, as the main citadel had done. Then it was that Grant 
turned to his last resource. 

It requires attention to comprehend how a plan so audacious as 
that now adopted could succeed. First, the watchful Pemberton 
was bewildered and misled as to the point of attack. About the 
time the batteries were run, Grierson, an Illinois officer, starting 
with seventeen hundred cavalry from La Grange, Tennessee, raid- 
ed completely through Mississippi, from north to south, so skil- 
fully creating an impression of large numbers, so effectively 
wrecking railroads and threatening incursion now here and now 
there, that the back-country was thrown into a panic, and Pem- 
berton thought an attack in force from that direction possible. 
Following close upon Grierson's raid, Sherman demonstrated with 
such noise and parade north of the city that Pemberton sent 
troops to meet a possible assault there. Meantime, the Thirteenth 
and Seventeenth corps were ferried rapidly across the river below 
Grand Gulf, and, a footing on the upland having been obtained 
unopposed, Grant stood fairly on the left bank. He now sent 
word to Halleck that he felt this battle was more than half won.* 

The event proved that Grant was not oversanguine. An easy 
victory at Port Gibson, over a brave but inferior force, gave him 
Grand Gulf. Joined now by Sherman, he plunged with his three 
corps into the interior, cutting loose from his river base, and also 
from his hampering connection with Washington. The previous 
fall he had learned to live off the country. Two more easy vic- 
tories, at Raymond and Jackson, gave him the state capital, and 
placed him, fully concentrated, between the armies of Pemberton 
and Johnston. The number of his foes was swelling fast — from 
Port Hudson, from South Carolina, from Tennessee; but Grant 
did not let slip his advantage. Johnston, not yet recovered from 
his Fair Oaks wound, was not at his best. Pemberton, confused 
by an adversary who could do so unmilitary a thing as to throw 
away his base, vacillated and blundered. A heavy battle at 
Champion's Hill, May 16, in which the completeness of Grant's 
victory was prevented by the bad conduct of McClernand, never- 
theless resulted in Pemberton's precipitate flight. Next day the 
Federals seized the crossing of the Big Black River, after which 
all the outposts of Vicksburg, from Haines's Bluff southward, fell 
without further fighting, and Pemberton, with the army that 
remained to him, was shut up within the works. The Federals 
held all outside, looking down from those heights, which for so 
long had seemed to them impregnable, upon the great river open 
to the north. Supplies and reinforcements could now come un- 

* War Records, Serial No. 36, p. 32. 



VICKSBURG. 



439 



hindered and were already pouring in. The fall of Vicksburg was 
certain. . . . 

The siege once begun, the fortress was doomed without recourse. 
Pemberton, to be sure, did not lose heart, and drove back the 
repeated Federal assaults with skill and courage. Johnston, from 




SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 



the rear, mustered men as he could, tried to concert with the be- 
sieged army a project of escape, and at last advanced to attack. 
But within the city supplies soon failed, and outside no resources 
were at hand for the city's succor. Johnston's request for twenty- 
thousand men, lying idle in Arkansas, had been slighted:* there 



29 



* Johnston, Narrative, 153. 



440 VlCKSBURG. 

was no other source of supply. Kirby Smith and Dick Taylor 
attempted a diversion on the west bank of the river; and still 
later, at Helena, Arkansas, a desperate push was made to afford 
relief. It was all in vain. The North, made cheerful by long- 
delayed success, poured forth to Grant out of its abundance both 
men and means. His army was in size nearly doubled; food and 
munitions abounded. The starving defenders were inexorably 
encircled by nearly three times their number of well-supplied and 
triumphant foes. Grant's assaults, bold and bloody though they 
were, had little effect in bringing about the result; the close in- 
vestment would have sufficed.* On July 4 came the uncon- 
ditional surrender. The Confederate losses before the surrender 
were fully 10,000; now 29,491 became prisoners, while in the for- 
tress were 170 cannon and 50,000 small arms. Grant's loss dur- 
ing the whole campaign was 9362. f 

To this triumph, a week later, was added the fall of Port 
Hudson, \ which, with a depleted garrison, held out stubbornly 
for six weeks against the Federals. N. P. Banks, who after 
his tragical Virginia experiences succeeded, in December, 1862, 
Butler in Louisiana, was set, as in the valley, to meet a difficult 
situation with inadequate means. With an army of little more 
than thirty thousand, in part nine-months' men, he was expected 
to hold New Orleans and such of Louisiana as had been con- 
quered, and also to co-operate with Grant in opening the Missis- 
sippi. When his garrisons had been placed he had scarcely 
fifteen thousand men left for service in the field, a number ex- 
ceeded at first by the Port Hudson defenders, strongly placed and 
well commanded. West of the river, moreover, was still another 
force under an old adversary in the Shenandoah country — Dick 
Taylor, a general well-endowed and trained in the best school. 
That Banks, though active, had no brilliant success, was not at 
all strange ; yet Halleck found fault. He could not extend a hand 
to Grant; but, risking his communications — risking, indeed, the 
possession of New Orleans — he concentrated at Port Hudson, 
which fortress, after a six weeks' siege, marked by two spirited 

* Admiral Porter's fleet kept up a continuous bombardment for forty days. 
Seven thousand mortar shells and 4500 shells from the gun-boats were dis- 
charged at the city. As Grant drew his lines closer, his cannonade was kept up 
day and night. The people of Vicksburg had taken shelter in caves dug in the 
clay hills on which the city stands. In these caves families lived day and 
night, and children were born. Famine attacked the city, and mule-meat made 
a savory dish. Grant mined under some of the Confederate works, and one 
of them, Fort Hill Bastion, was blown up on June 25 with terrible effect. — 
Harper's Encyclopaedia o} United States History. 

t War Records, Serial No. 37, pp. 146-424. 

%lbid., Serial No. 41, pp. 41-181 (Port Hudson). 



VICKSBURG. 



441 



assaults, he brought to great distress. Its fate was sealed by the 
fall of Vicksburg — Gardner, the commander, on July 9, surrender- 
ing the post with more than six thousand men and fifty-one guns. 
The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson was a success such 
as had not been achieved before during our Civil War, and was 
not paralleled afterwards until Appomattox. In military his- 
tory there are few achievements which equal it; and the magni- 
tude of the captures of men and resources is no more remarkable 
than are the unfailing courage of the soldiers and the genius and 
vigor of the general.* 

* Greene, The Mississippi. 



442 GETTYSBURG. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GETTYSBURG, JULY 1-3, 1863. 

In the eastern field of operations in the American Civil War, McClellan's 
organization of the Army of the Potomac had given him a well-disciplined 
army, with which he was facing General Joseph Johnston at the opening of 1862. 
But the Peninsular Campaign which McClellan entered upon early in the year, 
with the bloody fighting at Fair Oaks in May, and the Seven Days' Battles 
in May and June, resulted in the withdrawal of the Northern forces. There 
followed Pope's defeat near Bull Run. The forward movement was a failure. 
The Northern forces, only four miles from Richmond in June, were practically 
defending Washington in September. The desperate battle of Antietam 
checked Lee's movement into Maryland, but was not decisive. Burnside's 
costly defeat at Fredericksburg in December closed a gloomy year in the 
east, which to many seemed to show that the South could more than hold its 
own. The new year brought a renewal of disaster to the Northern arms in 
Hooker's defeat in the hard-fought battle of Chancellorsville. But the tide 
was to be turned by one of the crucial events of military history, which was 
close at hand. — Editor. 

The fall of Vicksburg, though a terrible blow to the South, was 
not a sudden one: to all intelligent eyes it had for some weeks 
been impending; but that Lee could be defeated seemed a thing 
impossible. Because so long unconquered, it had come to be 
accepted that he was unconquerable. 

Hooker soon recovered from the daze into which he had been 
thrown at Chancellorsville. His confidence in himself was not 
broken by his misfortune. Instead of, like Burnside, manfully 
shouldering most of the responsibility of his failure, Hooker ve- 
hemently accused his lieutenants of misconduct, and faced the 
new situation with as much resolution as if he had the prestige 
of a victor. The Army of the Potomac, never down in heart 
except for a moment, plucked up courage forthwith and girded 
itself for new encounters. 

The South, meanwhile, was still rejoicing over Chancellorsville, 
for the cloud on the southwestern horizon was at first no bigger 
than a man's hand. Longstreet joined Lee from Suffolk with 
two divisions, swelling the Army of Northern Virginia to eighty 
thousand or more. Never before had it been so numerous, so 



GETTYSBURG. 443 

well appointed, or in such good heart. The numerical advantage 
which the Federals had heretofore enjoyed was at this time nearly 
gone, because thousands of enlistments expired which could not 
immediately be made good: volunteering had nearly ceased, and 
the new schemes for recruiting were not yet effective. 

Lee took the initiative early in June,* full of the sense of the 
advantage to be gained from a campaign on Northern soil. War- 
worn Virginia was to receive a respite; Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
New York, as well as Washington, might be terrorized, and per- 
haps captured. If only the good-fortune so far enjoyed would 
continue, the Union's military strength might be completely 
wrecked, hesitating Europe won over to recognition, and the 
cause of the South made secure. 

With these fine and not at all extravagant anticipations, Lee 
put in motion his three great corps under the lieutenant-generals 
Ewell (Jackson's successor), Longstreet, and A. P. Hill. Long- 
street was ill at ease. Vicksburg, now in great danger, he thought 
could only be saved by reinforcing Bragg and advancing rapidly 
on Cincinnati, in which case Grant might be drawn north. Not- 
withstanding Longstreet's urgency, Lee persisted. f Ewell, pour- 
ing suddenly down the Shenandoah Valley, "gobbled up," as 
Lincoln put it, Milroy and his whole command of some four 
thousand, June 13, and presently from Maryland invaded Penn- 
sylvania. Longstreet was close behind : while the head of Ewell's 
column had been nearing the Potomac, A. P. Hill, who had re- 
mained at Fredericksburg to watch Hooker, as yet inactive on 
Stafford Heights, broke camp and followed northwestward. 
Ewell seized Chambersburg a few days later, then appeared at 
Carlisle, and even shook Harrisburg with his cannon. The 
North had, indeed, cause for alarm; the farmers of the invaded 
region were in a panic. "Emergency men/' enlisted for three 
months, gathered from New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and 
Pennsylvania to the threatened points. The great coast cities 
were face to face with a menace hitherto unexperienced. Were 
they really about to be sacked? What was to be done? 

There was no indecision, either at Washington or in the Army 
of the Potomac. Lincoln's horse-sense, sometimes tripping, but 
oftener adequate to deal with unparalleled burdens, homely, terse, 
and unerring in its expression, was at its best in these days. 
To Hooker, meditating movements along and across the Rappa- 
hannock, he wrote: "I would not take any risk of being entangled 
upon the river like an ox jumped half over a fence, and liable to 

* War Records, Serial Nos. 43 and 44, pp. 1-775 (all on Gettysburg cam- 
paign), 
f Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 331. 



444 GETTYSBURG. 

be torn by dogs in front and rear without a fair chance to gore 
one way or kick the other." * And again: "If the head of Lee's 
army is at Martinsburg (near the Potomac), and the tail of it on 
the plank-road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the 
animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break 
him?" "Fret him and fret him/' was the President's injunction 
to Hooker, regarding the advance of Lee. Well-poised, good- 
humored, constant, Lincoln gave no counsel to Hooker in these 
days that was not sound. 

Indeed, at this time, Hooker needed little admonition. Alert 
and resourceful, he no sooner detected the movement of Lee than 
he suggested an advance upon Richmond, which was thus left 
unguarded. Lee, of course, had contemplated the possibility of 
such a move, and, with a nod towards Washington, had joked 
about "swapping queens." The idea, which Hooker did not 
press, being disapproved, Hooker, turning towards Lee, proceeded 
to "fret him and fret him," his conduct comparing well with his 
brilliant management at the opening of the campaign of Chan- 
cellorsville. The cavalry, greatly improved by him, under 
Pleasonton, with divisions commanded by Buford, Duffie, and 
Gregg, was serviceable as never before, matching well the troopers 
of Stuart at Brandy Station, Aldie, and Middleburg. Screened 
on his left flank by his cavalry, as, on the other hand, Lee was 
screened by a similar body on his right, Hooker marched in columns 
parallel to those of his foe and farther east, yet always inter- 
posing between the enemy and Washington. As June drew 
to its end the Confederate advance was near Harrisburg, but the 
Federals were not caught napping. Hooker stood at Frederick, 
in Maryland, his corps stretched on either hand to cover Wash- 
ington and Baltimore, touching hands one with the other, and 
all confronting the foe. 

Lee's previous campaigns had shown with what disregard of 
military rules he could act, a recklessness up to this time justified 
by good luck and the ineptitude of his adversaries. Still con- 
temptuous of risks, he made just here an audacious move which 
was to result unfortunately.f He ordered, or perhaps suffered, 
Stuart, whom as he drew towards the Potomac he had held close 
on his right flank, to undertake with the cavalry a raid around the 
Federal army, after the precedents of the Peninsular and Second 
Bull Run campaigns. Casting loose from his chief, June 25, 
Stuart sallied out eastward and penetrated close to the neighbor- 

* War Records, Serial No. 45, p. 31. 

f F. H. Lee, Robert E. Lee, 265. For R. E. Lee's report of Gettysburg, see 
War Records, Serial No. 44, pp. 293 et seq.; Long, Lee, 280. 



GETTYSBURG. 445 

hood of Washington. He did no harm beyond making a few 
small captures and causing a useless scare; on the other hand, he 
suffered terrible fatigue, his exhausted men falling asleep almost 
by squadrons in their saddles. He could get no news from his 
friends, nor could he find EwelFs corps, which he had hoped to 
meet. Quite worn out with hardship, he did not become available 
to Lee until the late afternoon of July 2. A critical battle might 
have had a different issue* had the Confederate cavalry been 
in its proper place. It was almost by chance, through a scout 
of Longstreet's, that Lee, at Chambersburg, all uncertain of the 
Federal movement, heard at last that his enemy was close at hand 
and threatening his communications. At once he withdrew 
Ewell southward, so that he might face the danger with his three 
divisions together. 

Meantime, a most critical change came about in the camp of 
his foes. Hooker, on ill terms with Halleck, and engaged in 
controversy with him over Halleck's refusal to authorize the 
withdrawal of the garrison of Harper's Ferry, rather petulantly 
asked to be relieved of command, and the president complied at 
once. Such promptness was to be expected. Hooker had been 
doing well; but he had done just as well before Chancellorsville ; 
he was generally distrusted; his best subordinates were outspoken 
as to his lamentable record. The unsparing critic of Burnside 
had now to take his own medicine. A battle with Lee could not 
be ventured upon under a commander who could not keep on 
good terms with the administration, had there been nothing else. 
It was perilous swapping of horses in the midst of the stream, but 
Lincoln was forced to do it. Some cried out for the restoration 
of McClellan, and others for that of Fremont. The appointment 
fell to George Gordon Meade, commander of the Fifth Corps, who, 
with soldierly dignity, obeyed orders, assuming the burden June 
28, with a pledge to do his best. 

Meade, a West-Pointer of 1835,t was a man of ripe experience, 
thoroughly trained in war. He had first risen leading a brigade 
of the Pennsylvania reserves at Mechanicsville, just a year 
earlier. The good name then won he confirmed at Antietam, and 
still more at Fredericksburg. He was tall and spare, with an 
eagle face which no one that saw it can forget, a perfect horseman, 
and, though irascible, possessed of strong and manly character. 
In that momentous hour the best men were doubtful on what 
footing they stood. When Lincoln's messenger, with a solemn 
countenance, handed to Meade the appointment, he took it to 

* But see controversy between Mosby and Robertson as to management of 
the Confederate cavalry, Battles and Leaders, III., 251. 
f Cullum, Register of Mil. Acad., art., Meade. 



446 



GETTYSBURG. 



be an order for his arrest. Placed in command, he hesitated not a 
moment, building his strategy upon the foundation laid by his 
predecessor. 

Meade had with him in the field seven corps of infantry: the 
First, commanded temporarily by Doubleday; the Second, by 
Hancock, recently promoted; the Third, by Sickles; the Fifth, his 
own corps, now turned over to Sykes; the Sixth, Sedgwick, fort- 
unately not displaced, though so unjustly censured for his noble 
work on May 3 ; the Eleventh, Howard ; and the Twelfth, Slocum. 
The excellent cavalry divisions were under Buford, Kilpatrick, 




POSITIONS OF FEDERAL AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES, JUNE 30, 1863, 

AT SUNSET. 
Federal, □ Confederate, I 

and Gregg; and in the lower places capable young officers — Custer, 
Merritt, Farnsworth, Devin, Gamble — were pushing into notice. 
Of field-guns there were 340. It was a fault of the Union organ- 
ization that corps, divisions, and brigades were too small, bring- 
ing about, among other evils, too large a number of general and 
staff officers.* The Confederates here were wiser. Lee faced 
Meade's seven corps with but three, and 293 guns; but each Con- 
federate corps was nearly or quite twice as large as a Union corps ; 



* Hunt, in Battles and Leaders, III., 258, 



GETTYSBURG. 



447 




OPENING OF BATTLE OF GET- 
TYSBURG, JULY 1, 8 A.M. 



divisions and brigades were in the same relative proportion. The 
Army of the Potomac numbered 88,289 effectives; the Army of 
Northern Virginia, 75,000.* 

Meade at once chose and caused to be surveyed a position on 
Pipe Creek, just south of the Maryland line, as a field suitable to 
be held should the enemy come that 
way. He marched, however, north- 
westward cautiously, his corps in 
touch but spread wide apart, ready 
for battle and protecting as ever 
the capital and cities of the coast. f 
His especial reliance in this hour of 
need was John F. Reynolds, hand in 
hand with whom he had proceeded 
in his career from the day when, 
as fellow -brigadiers, they repulsed 
A. P. Hill at Beaver Dam Creek. 
This man he trusted completely and 
loved much. He warmly approved 
Hooker's action in committing to Reynolds the left wing nearest the 
enemy, made up of the First, Third, and Eleventh corps. This made 
Reynolds second in command. Meade, commander-in-chief, re- 
tained the centre and right. So the armies hovered, each uncertain 
of the other's exact whereabouts during the last days of June. 

On July 1, though Stuart for the moment was out of the cam- 
paign, the Federal cavalry was on hand. Buford's division, 
thrown out from the Federal left, moved well forward north of 
the town of Gettysburg, and were met by Heth's division of Hill's 
corps, marching forward, it is said, with no more hostile purpose 
at the time than that of getting shoes.f Buford held his line 
valiantly, being presently joined by Reynolds. The two, from 
the cupola of the seminary near by, studied the prospect hurriedly. 
A stand must be made then and there, and the First Corps, close 
at hand, was presently in support of the bold horsemen, who, dis- 
mounted, were with their carbines blocking the advance of the 
hostile infantry. 

The most irreparable and lamentable loss of the entire battle 
now occurred at the very outset. Reynolds fell dead at the 
front, leaving the left divisions without a leader in the most 
critical hour. Heth's advance was roughly handled; one bri- 
gade was mostly captured, Doubleday nodding, with a pleasant 
"Good-morning, I am glad to see you," to its commander, his 



* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 102. 

f War Records, Serial No. 43, pp. 104-119 (Report of Meade). 

X F, H. Lee, Robert E. Lee, 270, 



44<S 



GETTYSBURG. 



old West Point chum Archer, as the latter was passed to the rear 
among the prisoners.* There were still other captures and 
much fighting; but Ewell was fast arriving by the roads from the 
north; and although Howard, with the Eleventh Corps, came up 
from the south at the same time, the heavier Confederate bat- 
talions could not be held. Barlow, thrown out far forward into 
EwelPs path, was at once badly wounded, whereupon his division 
was repulsed. The Eleventh Corps in general gave way before 
EwelPs rush, rolling back disordered through the town, where 
large numbers were, captured. Fortunately, on the high crest 
of Cemetery Hill, Howard had stationed in reserve the division 
of Steinwehr. What broken brigades and regiments, fleeing 
through the town, could reach this point were forthwith rallied 
and reorganized. Thus, at mid-day of July 1, things were hope- 
ful for Lee. The First Corps, its flank exposed by the retirement 
of the Eleventh Corps, fell back fighting through Gettysburg to 
Cemetery Hill during the afternoon. Lee swept the Federals 
from the town and the fields and ridges beyond. Had Ewell 

stormed Cemetery Hill at once, Lee might 
have won a great success. 

One of the first marks of a capacity for 
leadership is the power to choose men, and 
Meade now showed this conspicuously. 
He had lost Reynolds, his main depend- 
ence, a loss that no doubt affected great- 
ly the fortunes of the first day's battle ; he 
replaced Reynolds with a young officer 
whom it was necessary to push over the 
heads of several seniors; but a better se- 
lection could not have been made. Of the 
splendid captains whom the long agony of 
the Army of the Potomac was slowly 
evolving, probably the best as an all-round 
soldier was Winfield Scott Hancock. Since 
his West Point training, finished in 1844,f 
he had had wide and thorough military experience, climbing labo- 
riously from colonel to corps commander, winning out from each 
grade to the next higher through faithful and able service. He 
could deal with figures; was diligent over papers and office drudg- 
ery; he was a patient drill-master — all these, and at the same time 
so dashing and magnetic in the field that he early earned the title 
" The Superb."$ His vigor, moreover, was tempered by judgment. 

* Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 132. 
f Cullum, Register of Mil. Acad., art., Hancock. 

{Walker, Hancock, in Mass. Mil. Hist. Soc, Papers, "Some Federal and 
Confederate Commanders," 49. 




YSBURG 



BEGINNING OF INFAN- 
TRY ENGAGEMENT 
JULY 1, 10 A.M. 



GETTYSBURG. 



449 



Hancock it was whom Meade now sent forward from Taney- 
town, thirteen miles away, when he was anxiously gathering in 
his host, to lead the hard-pressed left wing; he was to judge 
whether the position should be held, as Reynolds had thought, 
or a retirement attempted towards the surveyed lines of Pipe 
Creek. The apparition on Cemetery Hill, just before four o'clock, 




POSITIONS, JULY 1, 3 P.M. 

July 1, of Hancock upon his sweating charger, was equal to a 
reinforcement by an army corps. Fugitives halted; fragments of 
formations were welded into proper battle-lines./ In the respite 
given by Ewell, so ill-timed for Lee, the shattered First and 
Eleventh corps found breathing-space and plucked up heart. 
At six o'clock they were joined by the Twelfth Corps, that of the 
steadfast Slocum. Hancock, now feeling that there were troops 
enough for the present, and resolute leaders, galloped back to 
report to his chief. Upon his report Meade concentrated every- 
thing towards Cemetery Hill, the troops steadily plodding through 
the moonlit night. Meade himself reached the field an hour past 
midnight, gaunt and hollow-eyed /through want of sleep,* but 
clear in mind and stout of heart. /At dawn of July 2 the Second 
Corps, at the head of which Gibbon had taken Hancock's place, 
and the Third Corps, Sickles, were at hand. At noon arrived the 
Fifth, and soon after the Sixth, Sedgwick having marched his 
men thirty-four miles in eighteen hours. 

Two parallel ridges, their crests separated by an interval of not 
quite a mile, extend at Gettysburg north and south. The more 
westerly of these, called, from the Lutheran College there, Semi- 
nary Ridge, was the scene of the first attack on July 1, but on the 

* Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 156. 



/ 



450 GETTYSBURG. 

second day became the main Confederate position. The eastern 
ridge, terminated at its northern end by the town cemetery, close 
to which Howard so fortunately stationed Steinwehr on the first 
day, became the Federal stronghold. Cemetery Ridge was really 
shaped like a fish-hook, its line curving eastward to the abrupt 
and wooded Culp's Hill, the barb of the hook. At the curve the 
ridge was steep and rough with ledges and bowlders; as it ran 
southward its height diminished until, after a mile or so, it rose 
again into two marked elevations — Round Top, six hundred feet 
high, with a spur, Little Round Top just north. 

On the morning of July 2 the Federals lay along this ridge in 
order as follows: at the extreme right, on Culp's Hill (the fish- 
hook's barb), the Twelfth Corps, Slocum; at the bend, near the 
cemetery, the Eleventh Corps, Howard, reinforced from other 
bodies; on their left the First, now under Newton, and the Second, 
Gibbon. The First and Second corps formed, as it were, the 
shank of the hook, which the Third, Sickles, was expected to pro- 
long. The Fifth, on arriving, took place behind the third; and 
the Sixth, when it appeared from the east, helped to make se- 
cure the trains and sent aid elsewhere. The convex formation 
presently proved to be of incalculable value, enabling Meade to 
strengthen rapidly any threatened point. Fronting their foe, the 
Confederates lay in a parallel concave line , Ewell close at the 
curve and in the town, and A. P. Hill on Seminary Ridge; this 
line Longstreet prolonged southward, his right flank opposed to 
Round Top. The concave formation was an embarrassment to 
Lee — no reinforcements could reach threatened points without 
making a wide circuit. 

When Meade, supposing that Sickles had prolonged with the 
Third Corps the southward-stretching line, reviewed the field, 
he found the Third Corps thrown out far in advance, to the 
Emmittsburg road, which here passed along a dominating ridge; 
the break in the continuity of his line filled the general with alarm, 
but it was too late to change. Whether or not Sickles blundered 
will not be argued here. Meade condemned; other good au- 
thorities have approved, among them Sheridan, who regarded as 
just Sickles's claim that the line marked out by Meade was un- 
tenable.* 

What happened here will presently be told. 

Lee, too, was out of harmony with Longstreet, his well-tried 
second; and the first matter in dispute was the expediency of 
fighting at all at Gettysburg. When Longstreet, coming from 
Chambersburg, took in the situation, he urged upon Lee, bent 
upon his battle, a turning of the Federal left as better strategy, 

*A tradition at Gettysburg. 



GETTYSBURG. 451 

by which the Confederates might interpose between Meade and 
Washington and compel Meade to make the attack. Longstreet 
held Lee to be perfect in defensive warfare; on the offensive, 
however, he thought him " over-combative" and liable to rash- 
ness.* Lee rejected the advice with a touch of irritation; and 
when Longstreet, acquiescing, made a second suggestion — namely, 
for a tactical turning of the Federal left instead of a direct assault 
— Lee pronounced for the assault in a manner so peremptory that 
Longstreet could say no more. From first to last at Gettysburg, 
Longstreet was ill at ease, in spite of which his blows fell like those 
from the hammer of a war-god. The friends of Lee have de- 
nounced him for a sluggishness and insubordination that, as they 
claim, lost for them the battle. f His defence of himself is earnest 
and pathetic, of great weight as coming from one of the most able 
and manful figures on either side in the Civil War. 

Of Longstreet's three divisions, only one, that of McLaws, was 
on hand with all its brigades on the forenoon of July 2. At noon 
arrived Law, completing Hood's division. Pickett's division 
was still behind; but in mid-afternoon, without waiting for him, 
Longstreet attacked — Hood, with all possible energy, striking 
Sickles in his far-advanced position and working dangerously 
around his flank towards the Round Tops. Longstreet's generals, 
I Hood and afterwards Law (Hood falling wounded in the first 
/ attack), though men of courage and dash, assaulted only after 
having filed written protests, feeling sure that the position could 
be easily turned and gained with little fighting. But Lee had 
been peremptory, and no choice was left. J 

/" Gouverneur K. Warren, then chief-engineer of the Army of 
the Potomac, despatched by Meade to the left during the after- 
noon, found the Round Tops undefended. They were plainly 
the key to the Federal position, offering points which, if seized by 
the enemy, would make possible an enfilading of the Federal line. 
Troops of the Twelfth Corps, at first stationed there, had been 
withdrawn and their places not supplied. There was not a mo- 
ment to lose. Even as he stood, Warren beheld in the opposite 
woods the gleam of arms from Longstreet's swift advance. Leap- 
ing down from ledge to ledge, he met a brigade of the Fifth Corps, 
just arrived and marching to the aid of Sickles. These he diverted 
to the eyrie he had so lately left; a battery, too, was dragged up 
over the rocks, and none too soon. At that very moment the 

* Mrs. Longstreet, Lee and Longstreet at High Tide, 83, 84. 

f For criticisms by the friends of Lee, see Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confed. 
Govt., II., 447; F. H. Lee, Robert E. Lee, 299; William Allan, in Battles and 
Leaders, III., 355. Able and impartial is G. F. R. Henderson, Science of 
War, 280 et seq. | Hood, Advance and Retreat, 57 et seq. 






452 



GETTYSBURG. 



^SMITH 

iv HZ 

GORDON 




POSITIONS, JULY 2, 2:30 P.M. 

men of Hood charged out of the valley, and the height was held 
only by the most obstinate combat. 

From the valley, meantime, came up a tumult of arms which, 
as the sun threw its rays aslant, spread wider and louder. Long- 
street and A. P. Hill threw in upon the Third Corps every man 
available; while, on the other hand, Meade poured in to its sup- 
port division after division from the Fifth, and at last from the 
Second and Twelfth.* About six o'clock Sickles fell wounded; 
by sunset his line was everywhere forced back, though not in rout. 

*For Meade's good judgment and activity, see Walker, in Battles and 
Leaders, III,, 40.6. 



GETTYSBURG. 453 

By dusk the Confederates had mastered all resistance in the 
valley. But the line once reached which Meade had originally 
designed, running north from Little Round Top to Cemetery 
Ridge, retreat went no farther. That line was not crossed by 
foot of foe. When night fell the Round Tops were held firmly, 
while troops from the Sixth Corps guarded the Union left. Nearer 
the centre stood the Third and Fifth, much shattered but still 
defiant. In a way, what had happened was but a rectification of 
Meade's line: the Confederates, indeed, had won ground, but 
the losses they had inflicted were no more appalling than those 
they had received. 

Meantime, fighting no less determined and sanguinary had 
taken place at the cemetery and Culp's Hill. Lee's plan con- 
templated a simultaneous attack at the north and south;] but 
Ewell, at the north, was late in his advance, and the intended 
effect of distracting the Federals was wellnigh lost. The Louisiana 
brigade dashed itself in vain against the height just above the 
town. The Stonewall division fared better; for, the Federal de- 
fenders being for the most part withdrawn, they seized intrench- 
ments on Culp's Hill, penetrating far — for Meade a most critical 
advance, since they came within thirty rods of the Baltimore 
turnpike, where lay his trains and reserve ammunition. The 
South has always believed that, had Stonewall Jackson been 
there, the Federal rear would have been reached, and rout and 
capture made certain. 

/■ For both sides it had been a day of terrible experiences, and for 
the Federals the outlook was perhaps more gloomy than for their 
foes. On each flank the Confederates had gained an advantage, 
and Lee probably felt a hopefulness which the circumstances did 
not really justify. Meade gathered his generals at midnight in 
council. It was in a little room, but ten or twelve feet square, 
a group dust-covered and sweat-stained, the strong faces sternly 
earnest. Some sat on the bed; some stood; Warren, wounded, 
stretched out on the floor, was overcome by sleep. There was no 
vote but to fight it out on the morrow. In this Meade acquiesced, 
carefully planning for a retreat, however, should the need arise. 
To Gibbon, commanding the Second Corps, placed between the 
wings, he said: "Your turn will come to-morrow. To-day he 
has struck the flanks: next, it will be the centre." * 
/ Lee was drawn on by the success of the first day to fight again 
on the second; his success on the second induced him to try for 
the third time ; but he had exhausted his good-fortune. At earliest 
dawn of July 3, 1863, began a wrestle for the possession of Culp's 
Hill, Fwell heavily reinforcing the Stonewall division which had 

* Gibbon, in Battles and Leaders, III., 313. 



454 



GETTYSBURG. 



won footing there the night before, and the Twelfth Corps as 
stubbornly struggling for the ground it had lost. It was a fight 
of six hours, in which the extreme northern wings of the two 
armies only were concerned. The Federals won, at a heavy 
sacrifice of life. 

Elsewhere the armies rested, an ominous silence at last reigning 
on the trampled and bloody field under the mid-day sun. Meade 
and his soldiers knew that it portended danger, and with a sure 
intuition the army chief was watching with especial care the 
centre, as yet unassailed. On the Confederate side, the unhappy 




POSITIONS, JULY 3, IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON. 

I Longstreet, at odds with his chief as to the wisdom of the cam- 
paign from the start, and disapproving both its strategy and tac- 
tics, was now in deeper gloom than ever. Lee had determined 
to assault the Federal centre, and by a cruel turn of fate the blow 
must be struck by the reluctant Longstreet. Of the three great 
Confederate corps, it was only in Longstreet's that a force re- 
mained as yet unwrung by the fearful agonies of the last two days. 






GETTYSBURG. 455 



Pickett's division, solidly Virginian, and in the eyes of Lee a 
Tenth Legion in its valor, as yet had done nothing, and was to 
bear the brunt of the attack. "What troops do you design for 
the assault?" Longstreet had asked. Lee, having indicated Pick- 
ett's division of five thousand, with auxiliary divisions, making 
an entire number in the charging column of fifteen thousand, 
the Georgian burst out: "I have been a soldier from the ground 
up. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, — 
by squads, companies, regiments, armies, — and should know as 
well as any one what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no 
fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that 
position." * 

But Lee was unmoved. Confident of success, he despatched 
Stuart, arrived at last after his raid, so long and futile, around 
beyond the Federal right. When the Union centre should be 
broken and Meade thrown into retreat, Stuart was to seize its 
only practicable route for retreat, the Baltimore pike, and make 
the defeat decisive. 

Meade, meantime, had managed warily and well. At his centre 
stood Hancock, his best lieutenant. There were massed the First 
and Second corps, with reserve troops at hand ready to pour in at 
the word, with batteries bearing upon front and flank, every 
approach guarded, every man and horse on the alert. The pro- 
vost-guards, and in the rear of all a regiment of cavalry, formed 
in line behind, had orders to shoot any faint hearts who, in the 
crisis, should turn from the foe to flee.f At one o'clock two 
signal-guns were heard on Seminary Ridge, upon which followed 
a terrible cannonade, appalling but only slightly harmful, for 
the waiting ranks found cover from the missiles. Feeling sure 
that this was a prelude to something more serious, the Federal 
chief relaxed his fire to spare his ammunition. It was under- 
stood on the other side that the Federal guns were silenced; and 
that moment having been appointed as the time for the onset, 
Pickett inquired of Longstreet if he should go forward. Long- 
street, convinced that the charge must fail, made no reply, though 
the question was repeated. "I shall go forward," said Pickett, 
to which his general bowed his head. Instantly was heard the 
footbeat of the fifteen thousand, and the heavy-hearted Long- 
street, mounting his horse, rode out to behold the sacrifice. He 
has recorded that the column passed him down the slope high- 
hearted, buoyant, hopeful, Pickett riding gracefully, like a holi- 
day soldier, with cap set jauntily on his long, auburn locks.! 

* Mrs. Longstreet, Lee and Longstreet at High Tide, 48. 
t Pennypacker, Meade, 194. 
% Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 385 et seq. 
3Q 



456 GETTYSBURG. 

The silence of the Federal guns had been for a purpose. As 
Pickett's men appeared there was a sudden reopening of their 
tumult; a deadly sequence from round-shot to canister, and 
thence to the Minie- balls of the infantry. The defenders now 
saw before them, as they peered through the battle smoke from 
their shelter, a solid wedge of men, the division of Pickett, flanked 
by masses on the right and left commanded by Pettigrew and 
Wilcox. The column approached, and visibly melted away. Of 
Pickett's commanders of brigades every one went down, and their 
men lay literally in heaps beside them. 

"A thousand fell where Kemper led; 
A thousand died where Garnett bled; 
In blinding flame and strangling smoke 
The remnant through the batteries broke, 
And crossed the line with Armistead." 

A hundred or so, led by Armistead, his cap held aloft on his sword- 
point, actually penetrated the Federal line and reached the " clump 
of trees " just beyond, holding for a few moments a battery. Pet- 
tigrew and Trimble, just north, struggled also for a footing. But 
the foothold was only for a moment : on front and flank the Fed- 
erals converged, and the tide rolled slowly and heavily rearward. 
For the South all hope of victory was gone. 

As the broken and diminished multitude fell back to Seminary 
Ridge, Lee rode out to meet them. He was alone, his staff being 
all absent, in that supreme moment, on desperate errands. His 
face was calm and resolute, his voice confident but sympathetic 
as he exclaimed: "It was all my fault: now help me to do what 
I can to save what is left." It casts a light on his character, that 
even in that hour he chided a young officer near for chastising his 
horse: "Don't whip him, captain. I've got just such another 
foolish horse myself, and whipping does no good." * Longstreet 
declares Lee said again that night, about the bivouac-fire: "It 
was all my fault. You ought not to have made that last attack "; 
and that still again Lee wrote tohim at a later time : " If I had only 
taken your, advice, even on the 3rd, and moved around the 
Federal left, how different all might have been!" f 

Longstreet also records that he fully expected a counter-stroke 
at once, and looked to his batteries, only to find the ammunition 
exhausted; but they were his only reliance for defence. The 
Federal cavalry, at that moment attacking his right, occupied 
troops who might otherwise have been brought to the centre. 

* Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 274 et seq. Confirmed to 
the writer by General E. P. Alexander, who heard the rebuke, 
f Battles and Leaders, III., 349. 



GETTYSBURG. 457 

Should there have been a counter-stroke? Hancock, lying 
wounded almost to death in an ambulance, reasoned that, because 
he had been struck by a tenpenny nail, the Confederate ammuni- 
tion must be exhausted; he had strength to dictate an approval 
if the charge should be ordered.* Lincoln always felt that it 
should have been made, and lamented that he did not go to Gettys- 
burg himself and push matters on the field, as the crisis required. f 
We can surmise what Grant would have done had he instead of 
Meade, as the sun lowered, looked across the valley from Cemetery 
Ridge. But the case may be put strongly for Meade : with his best 
lieutenants dead or wounded, worn out himself, whom else could 
he trust? And, in the disorder of his line, how could he tell how 
far his own army had been shattered in the desperate fights, or 
what was Lee's condition? It was only prudent to let well 
enough alone. Nevertheless, a little of such imprudence as his 
"adversary was constantly showing might perhaps have led to 
Lee's complete destruction.^ During the three fearful days the 
Federals had lost 3155 killed, 14,529 wounded, 5365 missing — ■ 
a total of about 23,000; the Confederates, 3903 killed, 18,735 
wounded, 5425 missing — a total of about 28,000. § 

As it was, Lee stood defiantly on Seminary Ridge full twenty- 
four hours longer. Then, gathering his army about him, and call- 
ing in the cavalry which, during Pickett's charge, was receiving 
severe punishment on its own account at the hands of Gregg and 
his division, he slowly withdrew. Practically undisturbed, he 
crossed the Potomac, followed with great deliberation by the army 
that had conquered but failed to crush. 

Lincoln's disappointment was never greater than over the lame 
outcome of Gettysburg. "We had them within our grasp," he 
cried. "We had only to stretch forth our hands and they were 
ours, and nothing I could say or do could make the army move. 
Our army held the War in the hollow of their hand and they would 
not close it." The honor that fell to Meade for his splendid service 
was deserved. While the criticism was violent, he asked to be 
relieved. But the better nature of the North made itself evident 
at last, and he was retained. It was felt that he had served 
his country most nobly, and, though possibly falling short of 
the highest, deserved to be forever cherished among the im- 
mortals. 

* Committee on Conduct of the War, Report, pt. i. (1864-1865), 408 et seq. 
f Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VII., 278. 

X For a minute discussion of Meade's management, and much testimony, see 
Committee on Conduct of the War, Report, pt. i. (1864-1865), 295-524. 
§ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 102. 



458 GETTYSBURG. 

SYNOPSIS OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, BE- 
TWEEN THE BATTLES OF VICKSBURG AND GETTYSBURG, 
1863, AND THE BATTLE OF SEDAN, 1870. 

a. d. 1863. Federal victories at Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and 
Lookout Mountain. 

1864. Sherman begins his march to the sea, May 5. Battle of the 
Wilderness between Grant and Lee. Second battle of Cold Har- 
bor; Lee repulses Grant's assault. Confederate cruiser Alabama 
sunk by U. S. S. Kearsarge. Farragut defeats Confederate fleet 
in Mobile Bay. Federal victories at Winchester and Cedar Creek. 
Second Schleswig-Holstein war begins. 

1865. Capture of Fort Fisher by the Federals. Sherman oc- 
cupies Charleston. Defeat of Lee at Five Forks. Capture of 
Petersburg and Richmond. Surrender of General Lee at Appo- 
mattox Court-House. President Lincoln assassinated, April 14. 
Capture of Jefferson Davis, May 10. End of the Civil War. 

1866. War of Prussia and Italy against Austria and her German 
allies. Prussian troops occupy Holstein, Hanover, Saxony, and 
Hesse-Cassel. The Prussian forces overwhelm the Austrians at 
the battle of Sadowa. Successful Prussian campaigns against 
forces of South German states. The Peace of Prague between 
Prussia and Austria. Peace of Vienna between Austria and Italy. 
Dissolution of German Confederation, annexation of Hanover 
and other states to Prussia, and formation of North German 
Confederation under the leadership of Prussia. 

1867. Dominion of Canada constituted. Warfare in Italy be- 
tween Garibaldi and French and Papal troops. French troops 
withdraw from Mexico. Maximilian captured by Juarez and 
shot. 

1868. Impeachment of President Johnson fails. Sir Robert 
Napier storms Magdala. End of Abyssinian War. Revolution 
in Spain. Cuban insurrection. 

1870. France declares war against Prussia. The French defeat- 
ed at Spichera and Gravelotte. 



SEDAN. 459 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BATTLE OF SEDAN, 1870. 

The Franco-German War was probably inevitable, but its immediate causes 
were creditable to neither side. In France, Napoleon III. found his aspiration 
to play the leading part in Europe threatened by the rise of Prussia after its 
victory over Austria in 1866. In Prussia, Bismarck and others were de- 
termined to crush the power of France, and there was also the aspiration for 
a unified Germany. The year 1867 brought a dispute over Luxembourg. 
Napoleon, whose desire for absolutism was threatened by the domestic unrest 
shown in the Plebiscite of 1870, dreamed of strengthening his hold by a "brill- 
iant foreign policy." The mention of a Hohenzollern — a Prussian Prince — 
for the vacant throne of Spain, gave him an opportunity. 

His protests extended to the point of a demand that the Prussian Emperor 
should bind himself by humiliating pledges not to interfere in Spain. Bis- 
marck saw his opportunity, and changed the wording of the reply so that, as 
von Moltke said, it became a "call to battle." Napoleon, who had been com- 
pletely deceived as to the condition of his army, which in morale and equip- 
ment was unfit for active service, declared war on July 15, 1870. 

The French forces consisted of about three hundred thousand men, divided 
into six corps and the Imperial Guard. The Prussian, North German, Bava- 
rian, Wurtemberger, and Badenese troops made up a German force of one 
million one hundred and twenty-four thousand. On the French side were 
inefficient preparation, lack of discipline, and a want of matured plans. The 
German troops were well equipped, perfectly disciplined, led by trained 
soldiers, and before the war began von Moltke had matured all preparations 
and had planned even the details of the campaigns. From the first fighting 
at Saarbriick, on August 2d to the close, von Moltke's plans were carried 
out with mechanical precision. On August 4th the German Crown-Prince, en- 
tering France, won the victories of Wissemburg and Geisburg. On the 6th 
he defeated Napoleon at Woerth. The Germans advanced. Strasburg was 
attacked. Bazaine suffered one defeat after another, among them the crush- 
ing blow of Gravelotte on August 18th. 

After Gravelotte, Marshal MacMahon's attempt to relieve Metz, where 
Bazaine had been shut up by the German armies, was checked by the third and 
fourth German armies. MacMahon was driven back towards the Belgian fron- 
tier in an effort to force him into neutral territory. But the French commander 
sought protection in the fortress of Sedan, holding the heights on three sides 
of the town. The Germans, with a much superior force, invested the French 
position closely. 

The decisive battle which followed is described by the actual commander 
of the German forces.— Editor. 

While the Fifth French Corps were still fighting at Beaumont, 
and before the rest of the army had crossed the Meuse, General 



400 SEDAN. 

MacMahon had given orders that it was to concentrate on 
Sedan. 

He did not intend to offer battle there, but it was indispensable 
to give his troops a short rest and provide them with food and 
ammunition. Later on he meant to retreat via Mezieres, whither 
General Vinoy was just then proceeding with the newly formed 
Thirteenth Corps. The First French Corps, which had arrived 
at Carignan early in the afternoon, detached two of its divisions 
to Douzy in the evening to check any further advance of the 
Germans. 

Though pursuit immediately after the battle was prevented 
by the intervening river, the retreat of the French soon assumed 
the character of a rout. The troops were worn out with their 
efforts by day and night, in continuous rain, and with but scanty 
supplies of food. The marching to and fro, to no visible purpose, 
had undermined their confidence in their leaders, and a series 
of defeats had shaken their self-reliance. 

Thousands of fugitives, crying for bread, crowded round the 
wagons as they made their way to the little fortress which had so 
unexpectedly become the central goal of a vast army. 

The Emperor Napoleon arrived there from Carignan late in the 
evening; the Seventh Corps reached Floing during the night of 
the 31st, but the Twelfth French Corps did not arrive at Bazeilles 
until the following day. The Fifth French Corps mustered at 
the eastern suburb of Sedan in a shocking condition, followed in 
the afternoon by the First Corps, which drew up behind the 
Givonne Valley after many rear-guard actions with the German 
cavalry. It was impossible to proceed to Mezieres that day; 
but the Twelfth Corps had that same evening to face the Ger- 
mans at Bazeilles, where the sound of firing announced their 
arrival. Even the order to destroy the bridges there and at 
Donchery was neglected, owing to the worn-out condition of the 
men. 

(August 31st.) The French Guards and the 12th French 
Cavalry Division, which formed part of the Army of the Meuse, 
had crossed that river at Pouilly, by a pontoon bridge constructed 
at Letanne, and then scoured the country between the Meuse 
and the Chiers. Following close upon the rear of the French and 
harassing them till they reached their new position, they succeed- 
ed in taking many of the stragglers. The Guards crossed the 
Chiers at Carignan and halted at Sachy; the Twelfth fell back on 
the Meuse near Douzy, while its advanced guard pushed on past 
Francheval. The Fourth Corps remained at Mouzon. 

The 4th Cavalry Division of the Third German Army took 
the direct route to Sedan, drove back the French outposts from 
Wadelincourt and Frenois, and from thence took possession of 



SEDAN. 461 

the railroad under the fire of their artillery. The 6th Cavalry 
Division, on the left, reached Poix, on the way to Mezieres. 

When the First Bavarian Corps reached Remilly before noon, 
it came under the heavy fire from the opposite side of the river, 
and at once brought up its batteries in position on the near slope 
of the valley. A furious cannonade ensued, in which finally sixty 
guns engaged on the side of the Bavarians. The French now 
only tried to blow up the railway bridge south of Bazeilles, but 
the well-directed shots of the 4th Jager battalion drove off the 
men, the Jagers threw the powder-barrels into the river, and at 
mid-day crossed the bridge. The battalion entered Bazeilles in 
the face of a shower of bullets and occupied the northern quarter 
of the straggling little town. 

Thus the Twelfth French Corps was forced to draw up between 
Balan and La Moncelle, where, after beng reinforced by batteries 
from the First Corps, it faced, with an expenditure of considerable 
forces, the bold little troop of Germans. 

General von der Tann did not think it expedient, however, to 
engage, on that day and at that point, in serious conflict with an 
enemy in a concentrated position, and, seeing that there was no 
chance of being reinforced, he withdrew from Bazeilles at about 
half-past three, without being pursued. 

Meanwhile two pontoon bridges had been laid, without inter- 
ference from the French, at Allicourt. These and the bridge 
south of Bazeilles were barricaded for the night, while eighty- 
four guns secured the passage. 

The Eleventh German Corps marched towards Donchery, to 
the left of the Bavarians, followed by the Fifth. The advanced 
guard found the village unoccupied, and spread itself on the 
other side of the river. Two more bridges were thrown across 
below Sedan before three o'clock, while the railway bridge above, 
which was unprotected, was destroyed. 

The Wurtemberg and the 6th Cavalry Division, on the extreme 
left, came in contact with the Thirteenth French Corps, which 
had just arrived at Mezieres. 

The King removed his headquarters to Vendresse. 

In spite of long and sometimes forced marches in bad weather, 
with little by way of supplies beyond what could be requisitioned, 
the Army of the Meuse on the east, and the Third Army on the 
south, were now close in front of the combined forces of the 
French. 

Marshal MacMahon must have known that the only chance of 
safety for his army, or even part of it, was to continue imme- 
diately the retrograde movement on that day, September 1st. 
Of course the Crown-Prince of Prussia, who held the key to every 
passage over the Meuse, would have fallen on the flank of the 



462 SEDAN. 

retiring army, and would have pursued it to the frontier, a dis- 
tance of little more than a mile. That the attempt was not risked 
is probably owing to the state of the worn-out troops. They were 
as yet incapable of a retreat in close order; they could only fight 
where they stood. 

The Germans, on their side, still believed that the enemy would 
make for Mezieres. The Army of the Meuse was instructed to 
attack them in their position and detain them there; the Third 
Army to press ahead on the right side of the river, leaving only 
one corps on the left bank. 

The rear of the French was protected by the fortress of Sedan. 
The Meuse and the valleys of the Givonne and the Floing offered 
formidable obstructions, but this line of defence must be ob- 
stinately held. The Calvary of Illy was one of their most im- 
portant points, strengthened as it was by the Bois de la Garenne 
in its rear, whence a ridge extends to Bazeilles and offers pro- 
tection in its numerous dips and shoulders. The road ran past 
Illy, should it become necessary to enter neutral territory. Ba- 
zeilles, on the other hand, which, as regards situation, formed a 
strong point of appui for the line facing the Givonne, stands on a 
promontory, which, after the loss of the bridges across the Meuse, 
was open to attack on two sides. 

THE FIGHTING AT SEDAN. 
(September 1st.) 

In order to co-operate with the Army of the Meuse and hem 
in the French in their position, General von der Tann sent his 
first brigade over the pontoon bridges towards Bazeilles by four 
o'clock in the morning in a thick mist. The troops attacked the 
town, but found the streets barricaded, while they were fired on 
from every house. The company at the head pressed forward 
to the north gate, suffering great losses, but the others were 
driven out of the western part of Bazeilles, while engaged in street 
fighting, on the arrival of the 2d Brigade of the French Twelfth 
Corps. However, they kept possession of the buildings at the 
southern end of the town and from thence issued to repeated 
assaults. As fresh troops were constantly coming up on both 
sides, and the French even were reinforced by a brigade of the 
First and one of the Fifth Corps, the murderous combat lasted for 
many hours with wavering success; the fight for the Villa Beur- 
mann, situated near the end of the high street and commanding 
its whole length, was especially fierce. The citizens took active 
part in the struggle, and they too had to be shot down. 

The strong array of guns drawn up on the left ridge of the 
Valley of the Meuse could not be brought to bear on the crowded 



SEDAN. 



463 




THE GERMAN INVESTMENT OF SEDAN. 



streets of Bazeilles, now blazing in several places, but when, at 
eight o'clock, the 8th Prussian Division had arrived at Remilly, 
General von der Tann ordered his last brigade into action. The 
walled park of Monvillers was stormed and an entrance gained to 
Villa Beurmann. The artillery crossed the bridges at about nine 
o'clock, and the 8th Division were required to give their aid in a 
struggle begun by the Bavarians at La Moncelle, to the south of 
Bazeilles. 

Prince George of Saxony had despatched an advanced guard of 
seven battalions from Douzy in that direction at five o'clock in 
the morning. They drove the French from La Moncelle, pressed 
ahead to Platinerie and the bridge situated there, and, in spite of a 
hot and steady fire, took possession of the houses on the other side 
of the Givonne, which they immediately occupied for defensive 
purposes. Communication with the Bavarians was now estab- 



464 SEDAN. 

lislied and the battery of the advanced guard drawn up on the 
eastern slope; but the brave assailants could not be immediately 
reinforced by infantry. 

Marshal MacMahon had been struck by a splinter from a shell 
at La Moncelle at 6 a.m. He nominated General Ducrot as his 
successor in command, passing over the claims of two senior 
leaders. When General Ducrot received the news at seven 
o'clock, he issued orders for concentrating the army at Illy, and 
for an immediate retreat upon Mezieres. Of his own corps he de- 
spatched Lartigue's division to cover the passage at Daigny; 
Lacretelle and Bassoigne were ordered to assume the offensive 
against the Bavarians, and Saxons, so as to gain time for the rest 
of the troops to retire. The divisions forming the second line 
immediately began to move towards the north. 

The Minister of War had appointed General von Wimpffen, 
recently back from Algiers, to the command of the Fifth Corps, 
vice General de Failly, and had also empowered him to assume 
the chief command in case the Marshal should be disabled. 

General von Wimpffen knew the army of the Crown-Prince to 
be in the neighborhood of Donchery, he regarded the retreat to 
Mezieres as an impossibility, and was bent on the diametrically 
opposite course of forcing his way to Carignan, not doubting that 
he could rout the Bavarians and Saxons, and so effect a junction 
with Marshal Bazaineo When he heard of the orders just issued 
by General Ducrot, and, at the same time, observed that an 
assault upon the Germans in La Moncelle seemed to turn in his 
favor, he determined, in an evil hour, to exercise his authority. 

General Ducrot submitted without any remonstrance; he was 
perhaps not averse to being relieved of so heavy a responsibility. 
The divisions of the second line who were about to start were 
ordered back ; and the weak advance of the Bavarians and Saxons 
were soon hard pressed by the first line, who at once attacked 
them. 

By seven in the morning one regiment of the Saxon advanced 
guard had marched to the taking of La Moncelle; the other had 
been busy with the threatening advance of Lartigue's division on 
the right. Here the firing soon became very hot. The regiment 
had marched without knapsacks, and neglected previously to take 
out their cartridges. Thus they soon ran short of ammunition, 
and the repeated and violent onslaught of the Zouaves, directed 
principally against the unprotected right, had to be repulsed with 
the bayonet. 

On the left a strong artillery line had gradually been formed, 
and by half-past eight o'clock amounted to twelve batteries. 
But Lacretelle's division was now approaching on the Givonne 
lowlands, and dense swarms of tirailleurs forced the German 



SEDAN. 465 

batteries to retire at about nine o'clock. The gunners withdrew 
to some distance, but then turned about and reopened fire on 
the French, and after driving them back into the valley returned 
to their original position. 

The 4th Bavarian Brigade had meanwhile reached La Moncelle, 
and the 46th Saxon Brigade was coming up, so the small progress 
made by Bassoigne's division was checked. 

The right wing of the Saxon contingent, which had been hardly 
pressed, now received much-needed support from the 24th Division, 
and they at once assumed the offensive. The French were driven 
back upon Daigny, and lost five guns in the struggle. Then join- 
ing the Bavarians, who were pushing on through the valley to the 
northward, after a sharp fight, Daigny, the bridge, and farmstead 
of La Rapaille were taken. 

It was now about ten o'clock, and the Guards had arrived at the 
Upper Givonne. They had started before it was light, marching 
in two columns, when the sound of heavy firing reached them from 
Bazeilles and caused them to quicken their step. In order to 
render assistance by the shortest road, the left column would 
have to cross two deep ravines and the pathless wood of Chevallier, 
so they chose the longer route by Villers-Cernay, which the head 
of the right column had passed in ample time to take part in the 
contest between the Saxons and Lartigue's division, and to capt- 
ure two French guns. 

The divisions ordered back by General Ducrot had already 
resumed their position at the western slope, and the 14th Battery 
of the Guards now opened fire upon them from the east. 

At the same hour (ten o'clock) the Fourth German Corps and 
the 7th Division had arrived at Lamecourt, and the 8th at Remilly, 
both situated below Bazeilles; the advanced guard of the 8th 
stood at the Remilly railway station. 

The first attempt of the French to break through to Carignan 
eastward had proved a failure, and their retreat to Mezieres on 
the west had also been cut off, for the Fifth and Eleventh Corps 
of the Third Army, together with the Wurtemberg division, had 
received orders to move northward by that route. These troops 
had struck camp before daybreak, and at six o'ciock had crossed 
the Meuse at Donchery, and by the three pontoon bridges farther 
down the river. The advanced patrols found the road to Mezieres 
clear of the enemy, and the heavy shelling, heard from the direc- 
tion, of Bazeilles, made it appear probable that the French had 
accepted battle in their position at Sedan. The Crown-Prince, 
therefore, ordered the two corps, that had arrived at Brigne, to 
march to the right on St. Menges; the Wurtembergers were to re- 
main to keep watch over Mezieres. General von Kirchbach then 
pointed out Fleigneux to his advanced guard as the next ob- 



466 SEDAN. 

jective, to cut off the retreat of the French into Belgium, and 
maintain a connection with the right wing of the Army of the 
Meuse. 

The narrow roadway between the hills and the river leading 
to St. Albert, about two thousand paces distant, was neither held 
nor watched by the French. It was not till the advanced guard 
reached St. Menges that they encountered a French detachment, 
which soon withdrew. The Germans then deployed in the direc- 
tion of Illy, two companies on the right taking possession of Floing, 
where they kept up a gallant defence for two hours without assist- 
ance against repeated attacks. 

The first Prussian batteries that arrived had to exert themselves 
to the utmost to hold out against the larger force of French ar- 
tillery drawn up at Illy. At first they were only protected by 
cavalry and a few companies of infantry, and as this cavalry 
managed to issue from the defile of St. Albert, it found itself the 
misleading object of attack, for the Margueritte Cavalry Division 
halted on the Illy plateau. General Galliffet, commander of the 
division, at nine o'clock formed his three regiments of Chasseurs 
d'Afrique and two squadrons of Lancers into three divisions, and 
gave the order to charge. Two companies of the 87th Regiment 
were the first in the line; they allowed the cavalry to approach 
within sixty paces, and then fired a volley which failed to stop 
them. The 1st Division rode on a little farther, then wheeled out- 
ward to both flanks, and came upon the fire of the supports estab- 
lished in the copse. The Prussian batteries, too, sent a shower 
of shrapnel into their midst, when they finally retired to seek 
protection in the Bois de Garenne, while a trail of dead and 
wounded marked their way. 

About half an hour later — that is, at ten o'clock, and at the 
same time when the assaults of the French in Bazeilles and at 
Daigny were being repulsed — fourteen batteries of the Eleventh 
German Corps were erected on and beside the hill range southeast 
of St. Menges; those of the Fifth Corps were soon added to this 
artillery park. Thus, with the powerful infantry columns ad- 
vancing upon Fleigneux, the investing line drawn around Sedan 
was nearly completed. The Bavarian corps and the artillery re- 
serves remaining on the left embankment of the Meuse were con- 
sidered strong enough to repel any attempt of the French to break 
through in that direction. Five corps were standing on the right 
bank, ready for concentric attack. 

The Bavarians and Saxons, reinforced by the advanced guard 
of the Fourth Corps, issued from the burning town of Bazeilles 
and from Moncelle, and drove sections of the French Twelfth 
Corps, in spite of a stubborn resistance, from the east of Balan 
back to Fond de Givonne. 



SEDAN. 467 

Having thus taking possession of the spur of Illy, while awaiting 
a fresh attack of the French, the most necessary step now was to 
reform the troops, which were in much confusion. 

As soon as this was done the 5th Bavarian Brigade advanced 
on Balan. The troops found but a feeble resistance in the village 
itself; but it was only after a hard fight that they were allowed 
to occupy the park of the Castle, situated at the extreme end. 
From thence, soon after mid-day, the foremost battalion got close 
to the walls of the fortress, and exchanged shots with the garrison. 
The French were now trying to take up a position at Fond de 
Givonne, and a steady fire was opened on both sides. At one 
o'clock the French had evidently received reinforcements, and 
when, after the artillery and mitrailleuses had done some pre- 
liminary work, they assumed the offensive, the 5th Bavarian 
Brigade was driven back for some little distance, but assisted by 
the 6th, regained its old position after an hour's hard fighting. 
Meanwhile the Saxon corps had spread itself in the northern part 
of the valley towards Givonne. There the foremost companies 
of the Prussian Guards were already established, as also in Haybes. 
The Prussian artillery forced the French batteries to change their 
positions more than once, and several of them had already gone 
out of action. To gain an opening here, the French repeatedly 
tried to send ahead large bodies of tirailleurs, and ten guns were 
got into Givonne, after it had been occupied, but these were taken 
before they could unlimber. The Prussian shells also fell with 
some effect among the French troops massed in the Bois de la 
Garenne, though fired from a long range. 

After the Franctireurs de Paris had been driven out of Chapelle, 
the cavalry of the Prussian Guard advanced through Givonne 
and up the valley, and at noon the hussars had succeeded in es- 
tablishing a connection with the left wing of the Third Army. 

The 47th Brigade of that body had left Fleigneux to ascend the 
upper valley of the Givonne, and the retreat of the French from 
Illy in a southern direction had already begun. The 87th Regi- 
ment seized eight guns that were being worked, and captured 
thirty baggage-wagons with their teams and hundreds of cavalry 
horses wandering riderless. The cavalry of the advanced guard 
of the Fifth Corps captured General Brahaut and his staff, besides 
a great number of infantry and one hundred and fifty pack-horses, 
together with forty ammunition and transport wagons. 

At Floing there was also an attempt on the part of the French 
to break through; but the originally very insufficient infantry 
posts at that point had gradually been strengthened, and the 
French were driven from the locality as quickly as they had 
entered. And now the fire from the twenty-six batteries of the 
Army of the Meuse was joined by that of the Guards' batteries, 



468 SEDAN. 

which took up their position at the eastern slope of the Givonne 
valley. The effect was overwhelming. The French batteries 
were destroyed and many ammunition-wagons exploded. 

General von Wimpffen at first thought the advance of the Ger- 
mans from the north a mere feint, but recognized his mistake 
when he himself proceeded to the spot towards noon. He there- 
fore ordered the two divisions in the second line, which was be- 
hind the Givonne front of the First French Corps, to return to the 
height above Illy and support General Douay. 

On rejoining the Twelfth Corps he found it in full retreat on 
Sedan, and urgently requested General Douay to despatch assist- 
ance in the direction of Bazeilles. Maussion's brigade proceeded 
thither at once, followed by Dumont's, as their position in the 
front had been taken by Conseil Dumesnil's division. All these 
marches and counter-marches were executed in the space south 
of the Bois de Garenne under fire of the German artillery on two 
sides. The retreat of the cavalry heightened the confusion, and 
several battalions returned to the doubtful protection of the forest. 
General Douay, it is true, when reinforced by sections of the Fifth 
French Corps, retook the Calvaire, but was forced to abandon it 
by two o'clock; the forest, at the back of the Calvaire, was then 
shelled by sixty guns of the Prussian Guards. 

Liebert's division alone had up to now maintained its very 
strong position on the hills north of Casal. The assembling in 
sufficient strength of the German Fifth and Eleventh Corps at 
Floing, could only be effected very gradually. At one o'clock, 
however, part of them began to scale the hill immediately before 
them, while others went round to the south towards Gaulier and 
Casal, and more marched down from Fleigneux. These troops 
became so intermixed that no detailed orders could be given; a 
fierce contest was carried on for a long time with varying fortunes. 
The French division, attacked on both flanks, and also shelled, 
at last gave way, and the reserves of the Seventh Corps having 
already been called off to other parts of the battle-field, the 
French cavalry once more devoted themselves to the rescue. 

General Margueritte, with five regiments of light horse and 
two of lancers, charged out of the Bois de Garennes. He fell 
among the first, severely wounded, and General Galliffet took his 
place. The charge was over very treacherous ground, and even 
before they could attack the ranks were broken by the heavy 
flanking fire of the Prussian batteries. Still, with thinned num- 
bers but unflagging determination, the squadrons charged on 
the 43d Infantry Brigade and its reinforcements hurrying along 
from Fleigneux. Part of the German infantry on the hill-side 
were lying under cover, others were fully exposed in groups of 
more or less strength. Their foremost lines were broken through 



SEDAN. 469 

at several points, and a detachment of these brave troops forced 
their way past eight guns, through a hot fire, but the reserves 
beyond checked their further progress. A troop of cuirassiers, 
issuing from Gaulier, fell on the German rear, but encountering 
the Prussian hussars in the Meuse Valley, galloped off northward. 
Other detachments forced their way through the infantry as far 
as the narrow way by St. Albert, where the battalions holding it 
gave them a warm reception; others again enter Floing, only to 
succumb to the 5th Jagers, who fell on them front and rear. 
These attacks were repeated by the French again and again, and 
the murderous turmoil lasted for half an hour with steadily dimin- 
ishing success for the French. The volleys of the infantry fired 
at short range strewed the whole field with dead and wounded. 
Many fell into the quarries or over the steep precipices, a few may 
have escaped by swimming the Meuse, and scarcely more than 
half of these brave troops were left to return to the protection of 
the fortress. 

But this magnificent sacrifice of the splendid French cavalry 
could not change the fate of the day. The Prussian infantry 
had lost but few in cut-and-thrust encounters, and at once re- 
sumed the attack against Liebert's division. But in this on- 
slaught they sustained heavy losses; for instance, the three bat- 
talions of the 6th Regiment had to be commanded by lieutenants. 
Casal was stormed, and the French, after a spirited resistance, 
withdrew at about three o'clock to their last refuge, the Bois de 
Garennes. 

When, between one and two o'clock, the fighting round Bazeilles 
at first took a favorable turn for his army, General von Wimpffen 
returned to his original plan of overthrowing the Bavarians ex- 
hausted by a long struggle, and making his way to Carignan with 
the First, Fifth, and Twelfth Corps, while the Seventh Corps was 
to cover their rear. But the orders issued to that effect never 
reached the generals in command, or arrived so late that circum- 
stances forbade their being carried out. 

In consequence of his previous orders, Bassoigne's division with 
those of Goze and Grandchamp had remained idle. Now, at about 
three in the afternoon, the two last named advanced from Fond 
de Givonne, over the eastern ridge, and the 23d Saxon Division, 
which was marching in the valley on the left bank of the Givonne, 
found itself suddenly attacked by the compact French battalions 
and batteries, but with the aid of the left wing of the Guards and 
the artillery thundering from the eastern slope, they soon repulsed 
the French, and even followed them up back to Fond de Givonne. 
The energy of the French appears to have been exhausted, for 
they allowed themselves to be taken prisoners by hundreds. As 
soon as the hills on the west of the Givonne had been secured, the 



470 SEDAN. 

German artillery established itself there, and by three o'clock 
twenty-one batteries stood in line between Bazeilles and Haybes. 

Bois de Garennes, where many corps of all arms had found ref- 
uge and were wandering about, still remained to be taken. After 
a short cannonade the 1st Division of Prussian Guards ascended 
the hills from Givonne, and were joined by the Saxon battalions, 
the left wing of the Third Army at the same time pressing forward 
from Illy. A wild turmoil ensued, some of the French offered 
violent resistance, others surrendered by thousands at a time, but 
not until five o'clock were the Germans masters of the fortress. 

Meanwhile long columns of French could be seen pouring down 
on Sedan from all the neighboring hills. Irregular bands of troops 
were massed in and around the walls of the fortress, and shell from 
the German batteries on both sides of the Meuse were constantly 
exploding in their midst. Columns of fire soon began to rise from 
the city, and the Bavarians, who had gone round to Torcy, were 
about to climb the palisades at the gate when, at about half-past 
four, flags of truce were hoisted on the towers. 

The Emperor Napoleon had refused to join with General von 
Wimpffen in his attempt to break through the German lines; he 
had, on the contrary, desired him to parley with the enemy. On 
the order being renewed, the French suddenly ceased firing. 

General Reille now made his appearance in the presence of the 
King, who had watched the action since early in the day from the 
hill south of Frenois. He was the bearer of an autograph letter 
from the Emperor, whose presence in Sedan had till now been un- 
known. He placed his sword in the hands of the King, but as 
this was only an act of personal submission, the answer given to 
his letter demanded that an officer should be despatched hither, 
fully empowered to treat with General von Moltke as to the sur- 
render of the French army. 

This sorrowful duty was imposed on General von Wimpffen, who 
was in no way responsible for the desperate straits into which the 
army had been brought. 

The negotiations were held at Donchery during the night be- 
tween the 1st and 2d of September. The Germans were forced 
to consider that they must not forego the advantage gained over 
so powerful an enemy as France. When it was remembered that 
the French had regarded the victory of German arms over other 
nationalities in the light of an insult, any act of untimely gen- 
erosity might lead them to forget their own defeat. The only 
course to pursue was to insist upon the disarmament and deten- 
tion of the entire army, but the officers were to be free on parole. 

General von Wimpffen declared it impossible to accept such 
hard conditions, the negotiations were broken off, and the French 
officers returned to Sedan at one o'clock. Before their departure 



SEDAN. 471 

they were given to understand that unless these terms were 
agreed to by nine o'clock next morning the bombardment would 
be renewed. 

Thus the capitulation was signed by General von Wimpffen on 
the morning of the 2d, further resistance being obviously im- 
possible. 

Marshal MacMahon had been very fortunate in being disabled 
so early in the day, or he would have been inevitably compelled 
to sign the capitulation, and though he had only carried out the 
orders forced upon him by the Paris authorities, he could hardly 
have sat in judgment, as he afterwards did, on the comrade he 
had failed to relieve. 

It is difficult to understand why the Germans want to cele- 
brate the 2d of September when nothing remarkable happened 
but what was the inevitable result of the previous day's work; the 
day when the army really crowned itself with glory was the 1st 
of September. 

This splendid victory had cost the Germans 460 officers and 
8500 men. The French losses were far greater : 17,000 were killed, 
the work principally of the strong force of German artillery. 
Twenty-one thousand Frenchmen were taken prisoners in the 
course of the action, 83,000 surrendered — 104,000 in all. 

These, for the present, were assembled on the Peninsula of 
Iges, formed by the Meuse. As they were absolutely destitute 
of supplies, the Commandant of Mezieres allowed them the use of 
the railway as far as Donchery. 

Two corps d'armee were to effect and escort the transport of 
the prisoners, who were taken off 2000 at a time by two roads — 
one to Etain, and the other by Clermont to Pont-a-Mousson, where 
they were taken in charge by the army investing Metz, and 
forwarded to various places in Germany. 

Three thousand men had been disarmed on Belgian territory. 

The trophies, taken at Sedan, consisted of three standards, 419 
field-pieces, and 139 guns, 66,000 stands of arms, over 1000 baggage 
and other wagons, and 6000 horses fit for service. 

With the surrender of this army, Imperialism in France was 
extinct.* 

* For a complete history of this war, see the author's Franco-German War 
of 1870-71, Harper & Brothers. 
31 



472 SEDAN. 



SYNOPSIS OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, BETWEEN 

THE BATTLE OF SEDAN, 1870, AND THE BATTLES OF 

MANILA BAY AND SANTIAGO, 1898. 

a.d. 1870. Proclamation of the French Republic. Fall of Metz 
and surrender of Bazaine. The Italian forces occupy Rome. An- 
nexation of the Papal States to the Kingdom of Italy. 

1871. Capitulation of Paris, and signing of a definitive treaty 
of peace between France and Germany. William I. proclaimed 
Emperor of Germany. Outbreak of the Commune in Paris. 

1872. The Geneva Tribunal for the settlement of the Alabama 
question makes an award to the United States. Outbreak of the 
Carlist insurrection in Spain. 

1873. Spain is declared a Federal Republic. Capture of the 
American steamship Virginius by a Spanish gun-boat, and execu- 
tion of her crew at Santiago de Cuba. Spain apologizes and gives 
up the vessel. Outbreak of the Ashantee War. Russian ex- 
pedition to Khiva. 

1874. The Carlists in Spain surfer severe repulses and Alphonso 
XII. is proclaimed king. Capture of Koomassie and end of the 
Ashantee War. 

1876. Servia and Montenegro declare war against the Porte. 

1877. Russia declares war against Turkey. The siege of Kars 
raised. The Turks win the first battle of Plevna. Fall of 
Nicopolis. The Russians are victorious at Aladja. Storming of 
Kars. Osman Pasha is forced to surrender at Plevna. Russian 
victory at Shipka Pass. The Treaty of Berlin terminates the 
war. The British take possession of the Transvaal Republic. 

1878. The British occupy Afghanistan and capture Cabul. 
Close of Ten Years' War by Cuban revolutionists against Spanish 
rule. 

1879. War between Great Britain and the Zulus. Louis Napo- 
leon, Prince Imperial, with British forces in Zululand, killed while 
reconnoitring. Capture of Cetewayo. Chili engages in a war 
against Bolivia and Peru. 

1880. The Chilians are victorious at Tacna and blockade Callao. 

1881. President Garfield assassinated. Revolt of the Mahdi, 
or False Prophet, in the Soudan. 

1882. Bombardment of Alexandria by British fleet. Battle of 
Tel-el-Kebir, in which the British defeat Arabi Pasha. 

1883. French protectorate established over Annam. The Mah- 
di annihilates an Egyptian army under Hicks Pasha. End of the 
Chilian-Peruvian War. 

1884. General Gordon is shut up in Khartoum by the Mahdi. 

1885. Capture of Khartoum by the Mahdi, death of Gordon, 



SEDAN. 473 

and withdrawal of the British forces from the Soudan. Louis Riel 
heads an insurrection in Canada. He is captured and executed. 
War between England and Burmah. 

1886. Burmah annexed to the British Empire. 

1887. Renewal of the Triple Alliance between the German 
Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Italians are defeated 
at Massowah by King John of Abyssinia. 

1888. The Boulanger agitation in France. A revision of the 
Constitution demanded. 

1889. Brazil proclaimed a republic. 

1890. England assumes a protectorate over Zanzibar. 

1891. Civil war in Chili. 

1892. War between the French and the King of Dahomey. 

1893. Revolution in Hawaii. Queen Liliuokalani is deposed. 

1894. War between China and Japan. Victory of the Japanese 
at Ping Yang. The Japanese win the naval battle of the Yalu 
and capture Port Arthur. 

1895. Peace of Shimonoseki. China recognizes the indepen- 
dence of Korea, and cedes Formosa and the peninsula of Liao- 
Tung to Japan. The threats of European powers compel Japan 
to relinquish the latter to China. Message of President Cleveland 
relative to the boundary dispute between England and Venezuela. 
Spain declares martial law in Cuba. Revolutionists proclaim 
Cuban independence, adopt a constitution, establish a republican 
government, and display the flag of the revolution of 1868-78. 

1896. The Jameson raid into the Transvaal. The Boers capt- 
ure raiders. 

1897. Fierce conflicts between the Christian and Mohammedan 
inhabitants of Crete. Greece makes war upon Turkey, is disas- 
trously defeated in several battles, and obliged to sue for peace. 

1898. The U. S. battle-ship Maine is blown up in Havana Har- 
bor on the night of February 15th. On April 20th Congress directs 
the President to intervene between Spain and Cuba. On April 
23d the President issues a call for 125,000 volunteers, and on April 
26th Congress authorizes an increase of the regular army to 61,919 
officers and men. On April 25th Congress declares war between 
Spain and the United States as existing since April 21st. 



474 THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY, 1898. 

For more than a century the island of Cuba had been an object 
of peculiar interest and concern to the United States.* During 
the first part of the nineteenth century the fear was that Cuba 
might be acquired by Great Britain or France, and thus a strong 
European power would be established at the very gate of the 
American republic. Manifestly, it was then the policy of the 
United States to guarantee the possession of the island to Spain. 
But after the Mexican War the idea of exterritorial expansion 
entered more and more largely into American statesmanship. 
The South looked upon Cuba as a desirable addition to slave- 
holding territory, and it was apparent .to every eye that the 
island occupied an all-important strategic position in relation to 
the proposed canal routes across the Isthmus of Panama. 

In 1822 propositions for annexation came from Cuba to the 
United States, and Monroe sent an agent to investigate. Later, 
annexation was a recurrent subject favored by the South, which 
saw a field for the extension of slavery. In 1848 the American 
minister at Madrid was instructed by President Polk to sound 
the Spanish government upon the question of sale or cession. 
But Spain declined even to consider such a proposition. In 1854 
the so-called "Ostend Manifesto," drawn up by James Buchanan, 
John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule (respectively United States 
ministers to England, France, and Spain), declared in plain lan- 
guage that the " Union can never enjoy repose nor possess 
reliable security as long as Cuba is not embraced within its 
boundaries." It went on to advise the seizing of the coveted 
territory in case Spain refused to sell. The administration of 
President Pierce never directly sanctioned the proposition ad- 
vanced in such extraordinary terms, and Marcy, the Secretary of 
State, repudiated it unqualifiedly. So the matter fell again into 
abeyance until in 1873 the Virginius, an American schooner sus- 
pected of conveying arms and ammunition to the Cuban insur- 

* See the chapter on the Monroe Doctrine in The Rise of the New West, by 
Prof. F. J. Turner, and also chaps, i. and xi. of America as a World Poiver, 
by Prof. G. H. Latane. (The American Nation, Harper & Brothers.) 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 475 

gents, was captured by a Spanish gun-boat and taken to Havana. 
As a result of the trial, many insurgents, together with six Brit- 
ish subjects and thirty American citizens, were executed. For 
a time international complications seemed certain, but finally 
Spain made proper apologies and surrendered the Virginius and 
the survivors of her crew. 

The Cuban "Ten Years' War," from 1868 to 1878, was charac- 
terized by great cruelty and destructive losses of life and prop- 
erty in which American interests were now deeply involved. 
President Grant seriously considered and even threatened inter- 
vention, which would have meant annexation; but Spain prom- 
ised definite reforms, and the old conditions were continued. 

When the insurrection of 1895 began, American citizens owned 
at least fifty millions of property in the island and American 
commerce amounted to a hundred millions annually. Both on 
the Spanish and Cuban side outrages were of daily occurrence, 
and the situation quickly became intolerable. The McKinley 
administration ventured upon a mild remonstrance against the 
inhumanities of Captain-General Weyler, and the Spanish au- 
thorities replied evasively. Finally the United States formally 
offered its good offices for the adjustment of Cuban affairs, pre- 
sumably on a basis of independence. Spain declared that it was 
her intention to grant autonomy to the island, and the decree was 
actually published on November 27, 1897. But it was now too 
late, and the unhappy conditions grew worse day by day. 

There had been riots at Havana itself, and it was thought ad- 
visable to send the United States cruiser Maine on a friendly 
visit to that port. The Maine arrived at Havana on January 
25, 1898. On the night of February 15 the Maine was blown up 
while lying at her harbor moorings, with a ghastly loss of life. 
The American Court of Inquiry found that the ship was destroyed 
from the outside; the Spanish inquiry resulted in a verdict that 
the ship was destroyed from causes within herself. At the time 
there was an outburst of passion throughout the United States, 
and Spain was held guilty of an atrocious crime. While the ex- 
act cause of the disaster has never been finally determined, it is 
the verdict of calmer and more distant consideration that official 
Spain must be acquitted. At the time, however, this tragedy 
powerfully reinforced the efforts of Cubans and the pressure of 
financial interests to secure American support. When Senator 
Redfield Proctor, of Vermont, a man of peculiarly dispassionate 
temperament, made public his account of the suffering which he 
had witnessed among the reconcentrados (collections of native Cu- 
bans, particularly women and children, herded together by Span- 
ish troops), the sympathies of Americans were stirred even more 
deeply. Ministers preached intervention from their pulpits. Many 



470 THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 

newspapers demanded intervention. Yellow journals clamored for 
an ultimatum backed by arms. Congress was carried away by the 
wave of intense feeling, although President McKinley thought that 
a solution could be reached without an appeal to arms — a belief in 
which the final verdict of history will probably agree, although it 
was inevitable that Spain should resign control of Cuba. But the 
President was powerless against the popular sentiment. 

On April 25 war with Spain was formally declared, and for 
the first time in over three-quarters of a century the republic of 
the West found itself arrayed in arms against a European nation. 

The situation had its peculiar features. It had been assumed 
that the principal theatre of conflict would be the island of Cuba, 
and consequently the American campaign must be one of in- 
vasion. But the Spaniards, owing to the civil war in the colony, 
were in virtually the same position — fighting at a distance from 
their base of supplies. 

In material resources the United States ranked immeasurably 
superior. True, the numerical strength of the regular army was 
small, but behind it stood thousands of State militia and millions 
of available reserves. Moreover, the United States was classed 
among the richest of nations and Spain among the poorest. So 
far as the land operations were concerned, the final issue could 
not be doubtful. 

In naval strength, however, there was less disparity. On 
paper the United States ranked sixth among the world powers, 
while Spain occupied eighth place. But the United States, with 
its thousands of miles of coast on both the Altantic and the 
Pacific seaboards, was unquestionably vulnerable. Coast defences 
were admittedly inadequate, and it was conceivable that one 
swift dash by a Spanish squadron might endanger millions of 
property at Boston, New York, and Baltimore; at San Francisco, 
Portland, and Seattle. 

The situation on the Pacific Coast seemed even more delicate 
than that on the Eastern seaboard. There was a formidable 
Spanish squadron at Manila in the Philippine Islands, and all 
depended upon the fighting ability of the American Pacific fleet; 
if Dewey failed, the Western States of America were absolutely at 
the mercy of the enemy. 

For more than a month Commodore Dewey had lain with his 
fleet in the harbor of Hong-Kong, waiting for events to shape 
themselves. In anticipation of the coming strife, and the con- 
sequent declaration of neutrality on the part of Great Britain, 
the American commander had purchased two transport steamers, 
together with ten thousand tons of coal. He was thus prepared 
for prompt and decisive action. 

War had been declared on April 25, and the American squadron 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 477 

immediately left Hong-Kong for Mirs Bay, some thirty milesaway. 
On April 26 Commodore Dewey received the following despatch: 

"Washington, April 26. 
"Dewey, Asiatic Squadron, — Commence operations at once, 
particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture or destroy 
them. McIvinley." 

On April 27 the American fleet sailed for Manila, six hundred 
and twenty-eight miles away, and on the morning of Saturday, 
April 30, Luzon was sighted, and the ships were ordered to 
clear for action. 

Under Commodore George Dewey were the Olympia, the Boston, 
the Petrel, the Concord, the Raleigh, and the Baltimore. The 
only armored vessel in the squadron was the Olympia, the pro- 
tective belting, four inches thick, being around the turret guns. 
The auxiliary force was made up of the revenue-cutter McCulloch 
and two transports, the Vaughan and the Zafi.ro. Altogether, the 
American fighting force included four cruisers, two gun-boats, 
fifty-seven classified big guns, seventy-four rapid-fire and machine 
guns, and 1808 men. On the other side, Rear-Admiral Montojo 
commanded seven cruisers, five gun-boats, two torpedo-boats, 
fifty-two classified big guns, eighty-three rapid-fire and machine 
guns, and 1948 men. It will thus be seen that the Americans 
mounted a few more heavy guns, but the Spanish had several 
more ships and over a hundred more men. Moreover, the 
Spanish ships were assisted by the fort and land batteries at 
Manila, and they also possessed the great advantage of range- 
marks. Finally, the ship channels were supposed to be amply 
protected by mines and submarine batteries. After satisfying 
himself that the ships of the enemy were not in Subig Bay, Com- 
modore Dewey resolved to enter Manila Bay the same night. It 
was known that the channel had been mined, but that risk must 
be taken. With all lights except the stern ones extinguished, 
the American vessels steamed steadily onward ; finally, Corregidor 
Island, with its lofty light-house, came into view, and the fleet 
swept into the main ship channel known as the Boca Grande. 

Up to this point no sign had been made by the enemy that the 
approach of the American ships had been discovered, although 
the night was moonlit and it was only a little after eleven o'clock. 
Then a fireman on the McCulloch threw some soft coal in the 
furnace and a shower of sparks flew from the cutter's funnel. A 
solitary rocket ascended from Corregidor, and there was an 
answering light from the mainland. At a quarter-past eleven a 
bugle sounded, and from the shore batteries came a blinding glare, 
followed by the boom of a heavy gun — the first shot of the Spanish- 
America n War. 



478 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 



The Raleigh had the honor of replying for the American side, 
and the Boston followed quickly. A well-aimed six-inch shell 
from the Concord plumped into the Spanish fort; there was a 
crash and a cry, and all was still. The forts had been silenced. 

At slow speed the squadron moved onward, for Commodore 
Dewey did not wish to arrive at Manila before dawn. Some of 
the men managed to get a little sleep, but the ever-present danger 
of torpedoes and the excitement of the approaching battle were 
not conducive to peaceful slumbers. 

The morning of Sunday, May 1, dawned clear and beautiful, 
although the day promised to be hot. The squadron found itself 
directly across the bay from the city of Manila; and there, under 
the guns of Cavite, lay the Spanish fleet. 




BATTLE OP MANILA BAY 



According to Commodore Dewey's report, the shore batteries 
began firing at a quarter-past five. The Olympia, flying the 
signal "Remember the Maine," led the American column, fol- 
lowed closely by the Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, and 
Boston in the order named. The ships came on in a line approxi- 
mately parallel to that of the enemy, reserving their fire until 
within effective range. As the fleet advanced two submarine 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 479 

mines were exploded, but neither did any damage. At twenty 
minutes to six Commodore Dewey shouted to Captain Grid- 
ley in the conning-tower of the flagship: "Fire as soon as you 
get ready, Gridley." Instantly the Olympia discharged her 
broadside, the Baltimore followed the lead, and each successive 
ship in turn discharged every gun that could be brought to bear. 
The Spanish returned the fire with great energy, but with incon- 
clusive results. Several of the American ships were struck, but 
no casualties followed. Lieutenant Brumby, of the flag-ship, had 
the signal halyards shot out of his hands; a shot passed clean 
through the Baltimore, and another smashed into the foremast of 
the Boston. Incessantly firing, the battle-line steamed past the 
whole length of the stationary Spanish fleet, then swung slowly 
around, and began the countermarch. Once Montojo's flag-ship, 
the Reina Cristina, made a desperate attempt to leave the line and 
engage at close quarters, but she was quickly driven back. 

A little after half-past seven the American commander ordered 
the firing to be stopped, and the fleet headed for the eastern side 
of the bay for breakfast and a redistribution of ammunition for 
the big guns. The Spaniards, seeing the withdrawal of the Amer- 
ican vessels, rashly concluded that the enemy had been repulsed 
and raised a feeble cheer. In reality they were hopelessly beaten : 
several of their ships were on fire, the decks of all were covered 
with dead and dying men, and ammunition was running low. 

At a quarter-past eleven the battle was renewed. Several of 
the Spanish ships were now disabled and on fire, and Admiral 
Montojo had been forced to transfer his flag to the Isla de Cuba. 

A few minutes later the Reina Cristina, his former flag-ship, 
was blazing from end to end, and the explosion of her magazine 
completed the destruction of the vessel. One after another the 
Spanish ships succumbed under the storm of shot and shell, and 
either surrendered or were cut to pieces. The Don Antonio de 
Ulloa, riddled like a sieve and on fire in a dozen places, refused to 
acknowledge defeat, and went down with colors flying. Finally, 
Admiral Montojo hauled down his flag, and, leaving the Isla de 
Cuba, escaped to the shore. The arsenal building at Cavite ran 
up the white flag, and at half-past one Commodore Dewey sig- 
nalled to his ships that they might anchor at discretion. 

Never was victory more decisive. Not a man had been killed 
on the American side, and but four men were wounded — this 
through the explosion of a Spanish shell on the Baltimore. None 
of the American ships received any material damage. On the 
other hand, the following Spanish ships were completely destroyed : 
Reina Cristina (flag-ship), Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don 
Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, Marquiz del Duero, 
General Lezo, Correo, Velasco, and Isla de Mandanao. The 



4S0 THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 

casualties on the Spanish side amounted to about four hundred 
men. Moreover, the water-batteries of Cavite had been demol- 
ished, the arsenal had been captured, and the city of Manila lay 
defenceless under the guns of the American fleet. 

But Commodore Dewey's difficulties were by no means at an 
end. He had immediately proclaimed a blockade of the port. 
The German Pacific squadron, under Vice-Admiral von Diederich, 
had arrived at Manila shortly after the battle, and were, of course, 
in the position of neutrals, having access to the harbor merely 
on the ground of international courtesy. This privilege the Ger- 
mans quickly began to abuse, disregarding Commodore Dewey's 
regulations at will, and committing various acts inconsistent 
with the neutrality laws. Their attitude was both annoying 
and insolent, and it was evident that it must be promptly and 
effectually checked if the American supremacy were to be main- 
tained. 

At last the opportunity came. Commodore Dewey learned, on 
unquestionable authority, that one of the German vessels had 
been landing provisions at Manila, thereby violating neutrality. 
He immediately sent a vigorous protest to Admiral von Diederich 
— a message that ended with these significant words : " And, Brum- 
by, tell Admiral von Diederich that if he wants a fight he can have 
it right now." 

That was enough. The German admiral was not quite ready to 
involve his country in a war with the United States; he made a 
humble apology, and the incident was closed. 

On June 30 the first army expedition from the United States 
arrived at Manila, and Commodore Dewey's long vigil was at an 
end, the succeeding operations in the Philippines being almost 
exclusively military, and consisting of the capture of the city of 
Manila by the Americans and subsequent warfare with Aguinaldo 
and insurgent Filipinos. 

Such, in large outline, was the battle of Manila Bay. Foreign 
critics have derided American enthusiasm on the ground that the 
American fleet was far superior, that the Spanish vessels, many of 
them mere gun-boats, lacked armor and adequate guns, and that 
they were imperfectly manned. Yet the same critics ranked the 
naval forces of Spain as quite equal to the American at the out- 
set of the war. Furthermore, the action of Dewey, without a 
single battle-ship or torpedo-boat under his command, in entering 
a mined harbor without waiting to countermine, and in attacking 
a fleet whose strength was not accurately known, under the guns 
of land batteries, must be classed among the distinctive achieve- 
ments of naval history. The battle was decisive in its immediate 
outcome, far-reaching in its ultimate consequences. Dewey's 
victory but presaged the final triumph of American arms. The 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 481 

Battle of Manila Bay meant the expulsion of Spain from the 
Pacific, and the succession of the United States to Spain's heri- 
tage of Asiatic power. Politically, therefore, in its establishment 
of the United States as a power in the Orient, Manila Bay is to be 
placed among the decisive battles of history.* 

* The War with Spain, by Henry Cabot Lodge, and The Spanish War, by 
Gen. Russell A. Alger, may be consulted with advantage. Both are published 
by Harper & Brothers. Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History, vol. 
6, affords a picturesque account of the Battle of Manila Bay, by Ramon Reyes 
Lala, a Filipino author and lecturer. Professor Latane's account of the war 
in his America as a World Power (Harper & Brothers), offers an excellent 
example of judicial historical treatment. 



482 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO, 1898. 

I 
THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR IN THE WEST INDIES. 

President Roosevelt once said that the most striking thing 
about the war with Spain was the preparedness of the navy and 
the unpreparedness of the army. For fifteen years the United 
States had been building up a navy, and for months preceding 
the war every effort was made, with the resources at the command 
of the navy department, to put it in a state of first-class efficiency. 
As early as January 11, 1898, instructions were sent to the com- 
manders of the several squadrons to retain in the service men 
whose terms of enlistment were about to expire. As the Cuban 
situation grew more threatening, the North Atlantic Squadron 
and a torpedo-boat flotilla were rapidly assembled in Florida 
waters; and immediately after the destruction of the Maine the 
ships on the European and South Atlantic stations were ordered 
to Key West. . . . 

Both from a political and a military point of view the blockade 
of Cuba was the first step for the American government to take, 
and the surest and quickest means of bringing things to an issue. 
Cuba was the point in dispute between the United States and 
Spain, and a blockade would result in one of two things — the 
surrender of the island or the despatch of a Spanish naval force 
to its relief. The navy department had very little apprehension 
of an attack on our coast, as no squadron could hope to be in 
condition after crossing the Atlantic for offensive operations with- 
out coaling, and the only places where Spain could coal were in 
the West Indies. The public, however, took a different view of 
the situation, and no little alarm was felt in the Eastern cities. 
A few coast-defence guns of modern pattern would have relieved 
the department of the necessity of protecting the coast, and 
enabled it to concentrate the whole fighting force around Cuba. 
To meet popular demands, however, a Northern Patrol Squadron 
was organized April 20, under command of Commodore Howell, 
to cover the New England coast; and a more formidable Flying 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 483 

Squadron, under Commodore Schley, was assembled at Hampton 
Roads, and kept there until the appearance of the Spanish fleet 
in the West Indies. The main squadron was, stationed at Key 
West under Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, who had just 
been promoted to that grade, and given command of the entire 
naval force in North Atlantic waters. His appointment over the 
heads of Schley and other officers of superior rank and longer 
service created a great deal of criticism, although he was every- 
where conceded to be one of the most efficient and progressive 
officers of the new navy.* 

One hundred and twenty-eight ships [steam merchantmen, rev- 
enue-cutters, light-house tenders, yachts, and ocean liners] were 
added to the navy, and the government yards were kept busy 
transforming them. To man these ships the number of enlisted 
men was raised from 12,500 to 24,123, and a number of new officers 
appointed. f The heavy fighting force consisted of four first- 
class battle-ships, the Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Oregon; 
one second-class battle-ship, the Texas ; and two armored cruisers, 
the Brooklyn and the New York. As against these seven armored 
ships Spain had five armored cruisers of modern construction 
and of greater reputed speed than any of ours except the Brook- 
lyn and the New York, and one battle-ship of the Indiana type. 
Spain had further a type of vessel unknown to our navy and 
greatly feared by us — namely, torpedo-boat destroyers, such as 
the Furor, Pluton, and Terror. It was popularly supposed that 
the Spanish navy was somewhat superior to the American. 

As soon as the Spanish minister withdrew from Washington, a 
despatch was sent to Sampson at Key West directing him to 
blockade the coast of Cuba immediately from Cardenas to Bahia 
Honda, and to blockade Cienfuegos if it was considered advisable. 
On April 29, Admiral Cervera's division of the Spanish fleet left 
the Cape de Verde Islands for an unknown destination, and dis- 
appeared for two weeks from the knowledge of the American 
authorities. This fleet was composed of four armored cruisers, 
the Infanta Maria Teresa, Cristobal Colon, Oquendo, and Vizcaya, 
and three torpedo-boat destroyers. Its appearance in American 
waters was eagerly looked for, and interest in the war became 
intense. . . . 

[In the next two weeks Sampson's patrol of the Windward 
Islands and adjacent waters, and his visit to San Juan, Porto 
Rico, produced no discoveries, and he started to return to the 
blockade of Havana. At midnight, May 12-13, thirty-six hours 
after the event, the navy department learned that Cervera had 

* Long, New Am. Navy, I., 209. 

t Messages and Docs., Abridgment, 1898-1899, II., 921. 



484 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

appeared off Martinique. Sampson, with his fleet, and Schley, 
with the Flying Squadron, were ordered to Key West, which they 
reached on May 18.] 

The department had heard that Cervera had munitions of war 
essential to the defence of Havana, and that his orders were to 
reach Havana, Cienfuegos, or a port connected with Havana by 
rail. As Cienfuegos seemed the only place he would be likely to 
choose, Schley was ordered there with the Brooklyn, Massachusetts, 
and Texas, May 19. He was joined later by the Iowa, under 
Captain Evans, and by several cruisers. The Spanish squadron 
slipped into Santiago, unobserved by the cruisers on scouting 
duty, May 19, two days before Schley arrived at Cienfuegos, so 
that had Cervera known the conditions he could easily have made 
the latter port. On the same day the department received from 
spies in Havana probable information, conveyed by the cable 
which had been allowed to remain in operation, that Cervera had 
entered Santiago. As we now know, he had entered early that 
morning. Several auxiliary cruisers were immediately ordered 
to assemble before Santiago in order to watch Cervera and 
follow him in case he should leave. 

At the same time the department "strongly advised" Sampson 
to send Schley to Santiago at once with his whole command. 
Sampson replied that he had decided to hold Schley at Cienfuegos 
until it was certain that the Spanish fleet was in Santiago. Later 
he sent a despatch to Schley, received May 23, ordering him to 
proceed to Santiago if satisfied that the enemy were not at Ci- 
enfuegos.* The next dayf Schley started, encountering on the 
run much rain and rough weather, which seriously delayed the 
squadron. At 5.30 p.m., May 26, he reached a point twenty- 
two miles south of Santiago, where he was joined by several of 
the auxiliary cruisers on scouting duty. Captain Sigsbee, of the 
St. Paul, informed him that the scouts knew nothing positively 
about the Spanish fleet. The collier Merrimac had been disabled, 
which increased the difficulty of coaling. At 7.45 p.m., a little 
over two hours after his arrival, Schley without explanation 
signalled to the squadron: "Destination, Key West, via south 
side of Cuba and Yucatan Channel, as soon as collier is ready; 
speed, nine knots." Thus began the much-discussed retrograde 
movement, which occupied two days. Admiral Schley states in 
his book that Sigsbee 's report and other evidence led him to con- 
clude that the Spanish squadron was not in Santiago; hence the 

* Sec. of the Navy, Annual Report, 1898, App., pp. 465, 466. 

f It was on this date, May 24, that the Oregon, Captain Clark, appeared off 
Jupiter Inlet, Florida, ready for action, after a voyage of fourteen thousand 
miles from San Francisco. 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 185 

retrograde movement to protect the passage west of Cuba.* But 
he has never yet given any satisfactory explanation why he did not 
definitely ascertain the facts before turning back. Fortunately 
the squadron did not proceed very far; the lines towing the collier 
parted and other delays occurred. The next morning Schley 
received a despatch from the department stating that all the in- 
formation at hand indicated that Cervera was in Santiago, but he 
continued on his westward course slowly and at times drifting 
while some of the ships coaled. The next day, May 28, Schley 
returned to Santiago, arriving before that port about dusk, and 
established a blockade. f 

Admiral Sampson arrived off Santiago June 1, and assumed 
direct command of the squadron. The blockade, which lasted 
for over a month, was eagerly watched by the whole American 
people. The most thrilling incident was the daring but unsuccess- 
ful attempt made by Lieutenant Richmond Pearson Hobson to 
sink the collier Merrimac across the entrance to Santiago harbor, 
undertaken by direction of Admiral Sampson. Electric torpedoes 
were attached to the hull of the ship, sea-valves were cut, and 
anchor chains arranged on deck so that she could be brought to 
a sudden stop. Early on the morning of June 3, Hobson, assisted 
by a crew of seven seamen, took the collier into the entrance of 
the harbor under heavy fire and sunk her. The unfortunate 
shooting away of her steering-gear and the failure of some of the 
torpedoes to explode kept the ship from sinking at the place select- 
ed, so that the plan miscarried. Hobson and his men escaped 
death as by a miracle, but fell into the hands of the Spaniards.! 

ii. 

THE LAND CAMPAIGN. 

As soon as Cervera was blockaded in Santiago and the govern- 
ment was satisfied that all his ships were with him, it was decided 
to send an army to co-operate with the navy. Hitherto the war 
had been a naval war exclusively, and the two hundred thousand 
volunteers who had responded to the calls of the President in 
May had been kept in camp in different parts of the country. 
Most of the regular infantry and cavalry, together with several 
volunteer regiments, had been assembled at Tampa and organized 
as the Fifth Army Corps, in readiness to land in Cuba as soon as 
the navy had cleared the way. Conspicuous among these troops 

* Schley, Forty-five Years Under the Flag, 276. 

f Sec. of the Navy, Annual Report, 1898, App., p. 402; Long, New Am. Navy, 
L, 258-287. 

J Sec. of the Navy, Annual Report, 1898, App., p. 437. 



486 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

was the First Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as Roosevelt's 
Rough Riders, a regiment which through the energetic efforts of 
Dr. Leonard Wood, an army surgeon, who became its colonel, and 
Theodore Roosevelt, who resigned the position of assistant secre- 
tary of the navy to become its lieutenant-colonel, had been en- 
listed, officered, and equipped in fifty days. It was recruited 
largely from Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and had in its 
ranks cowboys, hunters, ranchmen, and more than one hundred 
and sixty full-blooded Indians, together with a few graduates of 
Harvard, Yale, and other Eastern colleges. 

Tampa was ill-suited for an instruction camp, and the prepara- 
tions made by the department for the accommodation and pro- 
visioning of such large bodies of men were wholly inadequate. 
One of the main difficulties was the inability of the commissary 
and quartermaster departments, hampered by red tape, senseless 
regulations, and political appointees, to distribute the train-loads 
of supplies which blocked the tracks leading to Tampa; so great 
was the congestion that the soldiers could not even get their mail. 
This condition continued for weeks. The great majority of the 
troops were finally sent to Santiago to fight under a tropical sun 
in heavy woollen clothes; lighter clothing was not supplied to them 
until they were ready to return to Montauk Point, where they 
needed the woollen. The sanitation of the camp was poor and 
the water-supply bad ; dysentery, malaria, and typhoid soon made 
their appearance. Similar conditions prevailed at the other 
camps. The administrative inefficiency of the war department 
was everywhere revealed in striking contrast with the fine record 
of the navy department. Secretary Alger had been too much 
occupied with questions of patronage to look after the real needs 
of the service. Although war had been regarded for months as 
inevitable, when it finally came the department was found to 
be utterly unprepared to equip troops for service in Cuba. As 
the result of this neglect, for which it should be said Congress 
was partly responsible, it was necessary to improvise an army — 
a rather serious undertaking! 

It had been the original intention to land the Fifth Army Corps 
at Mariel, near Havana, and begin operations against the capital 
city under the direct supervision of General Miles; but the bottling- 
up of Cervera at Santiago caused a change of plan, and General 
Miles, who still expected the heavy fighting to take place at 
Havana, selected Major-General William R. Shaf ter for the move- 
ment against Santiago. By June 1 the battle-ship Indiana, under 
Captain Henry C. Taylor, with a dozen smaller vessels, was ready 
to convoy the expedition. The army was very slow in embark- 
ing, and it was not until June 8 that the force was ready to depart. 
Further delay was caused by the unfounded rumor that a Spanish 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 487 

cruiser and two torpedo-boat destroyers had been sighted off the 
north coast of Cuba.* In order to ascertain whether all the 
Spanish ships were at Santiago, Lieutenant Victor Blue, of the 
navy, landed, and by personal observation from the hills back of 
the city located Cervera's entire division in the harbor. On June 
14 the transports, about thirty in number, sailed from Tampa 
with their convoy. They were crowded and ill-provided with 
supplies, the whole movement showing lack of experience in 
handling large bodies of men. The expedition consisted of 815 
officers and 16,072 enlisted men, regulars with the exception of 
the Seventy-first New York and the First Volunteer Cavalry.f 

The expedition under Shafter began disembarking at Daiquiri 
on the morning; of June 22, and by night six thousand men had 
with great difficulty been put ashore. No lighters or launches 
had been provided, and the only wharf, a small wooden one, had 
been stripped of its flooring: the war department expected the 
navy to look after these matters. In addition, the troops had 
been crowded into the transports without any reference to order, 
officers separated from their commands, artillery-pieces on one 
transport, horses on another, harness on a third, and no means 
of finding out where any of them were. By the aid of a few 
launches borrowed from the battle - ships, the men were put 
ashore, or near enough to wade through the surf, but the 
animals had to be thrown into the sea, where many of them 
perished, some in their bewilderment swimming out to sea in- 
stead of to shore. 

General Lawton advanced and seized Siboney next day, and 
Kent's division landed here, eight miles nearer Santiago. General 
Wheeler pushed on with part of Young's brigade, and on the 
morning of the 24th defeated the Spanish force at La Guasima, 
with a loss of one officer and fifteen men killed, six officers and 
forty-six men wounded 4 During the next week the army, in- 
cluding Garcia's Cuban command, was concentrated at Sevilla. 
These were trying days. The troops suffered from the heavy 
rains, poor rations, and bad camp accommodations. No ade- 
quate provision had been made for landing supplies or for trans- 
porting them to the camps, so that with an abundance, such as 
they were, aboard the transports, the soldiers were in actual want. 

On June 30 it was decided to advance. San Juan Hill, a 
strategic point on the direct road to Santiago, could not be taken 
or held while the Spaniards occupied El Caney, on the right of the 
American advance. The country was a jungle, and the roads 

* Sec. of the Navy, Annual Report, 1898, App., p. 667. 
f Major-General commanding the Army, Report, 1898, p. 149. 
t Ibid., p. 162. 
32 



488 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

from the coast little more than bridle-paths. Lawton moved out 
to a position south of El Caney that afternoon, so as to begin the 
attack early next morning. Wheeler's division of dismounted 
cavalry and Kent's division of infantry advanced towards El Poso, 
accompanied by Grimes's battery, which was to take position 
early in the morning and open the way for the advance towards 
San Juan. The attack at this point was to be delayed until 
Lawton's infantry fire was heard at El Caney. After forcing the 
enemy from this position, Lawton was to move towards Santiago 
and take position on Wheeler's right. Little was known of the 
ground over which the troops were to move or the position and 
strength of the forces they were to meet, consequently they went 
into battle without knowing what they were about and fought 
without any generalship being displayed. General Shafter was 
too ill to leave his headquarters in the rear. 

At El Caney, which was surrounded by trenches and block- 
houses, the Spaniards developed unexpected strength, and held 
Lawton in check until late in the afternoon, when he finally carried 
the position. In this fight about thirty-five hundred Americans 
were engaged, and not more than six hundred or one thousand 
Spaniards. The American loss was four officers and seventy-seven 
men killed, and twenty-five officers and three hundred and thirty- 
five men wounded. About one hundred and fifty Spaniards were 
captured, and between three hundred and four hundred killed 
and wounded.* 

Meanwhile there had been a desperate fight at San Juan Hill. 
As soon as Lawton's musket-fire was heard at El Caney, Grimes's 
battery opened fire from El Poso on the San Juan block-house. 
This fire was immediately returned by the enemy's artillery, who 
had the range, and a number of men were killed. The Spaniards 
used smokeless powder, which made it difficult to locate them, 
while some of the Americans had black powder, which quickly 
indicated their position. The road along which the troops had 
to advance was so narrow and rough that at times they had to 
proceed in column of twos. The progress made was very slow, 
and the long-range guns of the enemy killed numbers of men before 
they could get into position to return the fire. By the middle of 
the day the advance had crossed the river and lay exposed to a 
galling artillery and rifle fire. The suffering of the wounded, 
many of whom lay in the brush for hours without succor, was the 
most terrible feature of the situation. Hawkins's brigade lost 

* Major-General commanding the Army, Report, 1898, pp. 152, 169, 171, 
319, 366, 381. [General Vara el Rey, one of the bravest of the Spanish 
officers, was the leader in this desperate resistance, and was killed while rally- 
ing his men in the village. — Editor.] 



y&fSoMi 




CARIBBEAN SEA 



PLAN OF MILITARY OPERATIONS AROUND SANTIAGO. 



490 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

three commanders in fifteen minutes, General Wikoff being killed 
and Colonels Worth and Liscum wounded. 

Finally, after completing their formation and proceeding through 
brush and cactus in a sweltering heat, many of the troops having 
been exposed to fire for hours, permission to advance was given. 
Carroll's brigade took the lead, reinforced on the right by the 
Rough Riders commanded by Roosevelt, and supported by the 
First and Tenth regiments of Wood's brigade. The troops 
charged up San Juan Hill in great confusion, the roughness of the 
ground and wire-fence obstructions breaking up the formations. 
Officers and men, detached from their regiments, struggled along 
in groups, but the bravery and pluck of the individual man won 
the day. The Rough Riders, although raw and inexperienced, ac- 
quitted themselves creditably, and, together with troopers of the 
First regiment of regulars, were the first to reach the intrench- 
ments of the enemy, where they were heroically supported by the 
negro troopers of the Tenth Cavalry.* 

After occupying San Juan Hill the troops were still exposed to 
a constant fire, and many were discouraged and wanted to retire, 
but General Wheeler, who, though ill, had come to the front early 
in the afternoon, put a stop to this and set the men to work 
fortifying themselves. The next day Lawton came up and ad- 
vanced to a strong position on Wheeler's right. The fighting was 
resumed on the two following days, but about noon, July 3, the 
Spaniards ceased firing. The losses in the three days' fight were 
eighteen officers and one hundred and twenty-seven men killed, 
sixty-five officers and eight hundred and forty-nine men wounded, 
and seventy-two men missing. f The condition of the troops after 
the battle was very bad ; many of them were down with fever, and 
all were suffering from lack of suitable equipment and supplies. 
General Shafter cabled to the secretary of war, July 3, that it 
would be impossible to take Santiago by storm with the forces 
he then had, and that he was "seriously considering withdraw- 
ing about five miles and taking up a new position on the high 
ground between the San Juan River and Siboney."J The de- 
struction of Cervera's fleet the same day materially changed the 
situation. 



* Major-General commanding the Army, Report, 1898, pp. 147, 164, 172, 
305, 340, 341, 371, 391, 445, 590. [When the troops charged from the edge 
of the woods and the so-called Bloody Ford, the regulars under Hawkins car- 
ried San Juan Hill to the left, while the Rough Riders charged and captured 
Kettle Hill to the right, and then crossed to San Juan Hill to reinforce the 
regulars who had ciaptured it.— Editor.] 

t Major-General 'commanding the Army, Report, pp. 167, 173. 

j Message and Dgcs. ? Abridgment, 1898-1899, I., 270. 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 491 

hi. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF CERVKRA'S FLEET. 

The advance made by the American troops around Santiago on 
July 1 and 2 forced the Spanish authorities to come to a decision 
in regard to Cervera's fleet. Captain-General Blanco insisted that 
the fleet should not be captured or destroyed without a fight. 
Cervera refused to assume the responsibility of leaving the harbor, 
and when ordered to do so went out with consummate bravery, 
knowing that he was leading a forlorn-hope. Sampson seems to 
have been under the impression all along that the Spanish squad- 
ron would attempt to escape at night, but the American ships 
kept in so close to the shore, with dazzling search-lights directed 
against the entrance of the harbor, as to render it almost impossible 
to steer a ship out. On the morning of July 3, at 8.55, Sampson 
started east to meet General Shafter in conference at Siboney, 
signalling to the fleet as he left: "Disregard movements com- 
mander-in-chief." The Massachusetts had also left her place 
in the blockade to go to Guantanamo for coal. The remaining 
ships formed a semicircle around the entrance of the harbor, the 
Brooklyn to the west, holding the left of the line, then the Texas, 
next the Iowa in the centre and at the south of the curve, then, as 
the line curved in to the coast on the right, the Oregon and the 
Indiana. The Brooklyn and the Indiana, holding the left and the 
right of the line, were about two miles and one and a half miles 
respectively from the shore, and near them, closer in, lay the con- 
verted gun-boats Vixen and Gloucester. 

At 9.35 a.m., while most of the men were at Sunday inspection, 
the enemy's ships were discovered slowly steaming down the 
narrow channel of the harbor. In the lead was the Maria Teresa, 
followed by the Vizcaya, the Colon, the Oquendo, and the two 
torpedo-boat destroyers. The Iowa was the first to signal that 
the enemy were escaping, though the fact was noted on several 
ships at almost the same moment, and no orders were necessary. 
The American ships at once closed in and directed their fire against 
the Teresa. For a moment there was doubt as to whether the 
Spanish ships would separate and try to scatter the fire of our fleet 
or whether they would stick together. This was quickly settled 
when Cervera turned west, followed by the remainder of his com- 
mand. At this point Commodore Schley's flag-ship, the Brooklyn f 
which was farthest west, turned to the eastward, away from the 
hostile fleet, making a loop, at the end of which she again steamed 
westward farther out to sea but still ahead of any of the American 
vessels. The sudden and unexpected turn of the Brooklyn 
caused the Texas, which was behind her, to reverse her engines 
in order to avoid a collision and to come to a stand-still, thus 



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THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 403 

losing position, the Oregon and the Iowa both passing her. The 
two destroyers, which came out last, were attacked by the 
Indiana and the Gloucester, the commander of the latter, Wain- 
wright, dashing towards them in utter disregard of the fragile 
character of his vessel. The Furor was sunk and the Pluton was 
run ashore. The Teresa, struck by several shells which exploded 
and set her on fire, turned to the shore at 10.15 and was beached 
about six miles west of the Morro. The Oquendo was riddled by 
shell and likewise soon on fire. She was beached about half a 
mile west of the Teresa at 10.20. The Vizcaya and Colon were 
now left to bear the fire of the pursuing American ships, which were 
practically uninjured. In this running fight the Indiana dropped 
behind, owing to the defective condition of her machinery, but 
kept up her fire. At 11.05 the Vizcaya turned to run ashore about 
fifteen miles west of the Morro. The Brooklyn and the Oregon, 
followed at some distance by the Texas, continued the chase of 
the Colon. The Indiana and the Iowa, at the order of Sampson, 
who had come up, went back to guard the transports. At 1.15 
p.m. the Colon turned to shore thirty miles west of the Vizcaya and 
surrendered.* 

The fight was over, one of the most remarkable naval battles 
on record. On the American side, though the ships were struck 
many times, only one man was killed and one wounded. These 
casualties both occurred on Commodore Schley's flag-ship, the 
Brooklyn. The Spaniards lost about six hundred in killed and 
wounded. The American sailors took an active part in the 
rescue of the officers and crews of the burning Spanish ships. 

IV. 

THE SPANISH SURRENDER. 

On July 3, General Shafter demanded the surrender of the 
Spanish forces in Santiago. This being refused, he notified 
General Toral that the bombardment of Santiago would begin at 
noon of the 5th, thus giving two days for the women and children 
to leave the city. Nearly twenty thousand people came out and 
filled the villages and roads around. They were in an utterly 
destitute condition, and had to be taken care of largely by the 
American army — a great drain on their supplies. On the 10th 
and 11th the city was bombarded by the squadron. At this point 
General Miles arrived off Santiago with additional troops intended 
for Porto Rico. He and Shafter met General Toral under a flag 
of truce and arranged terms for the surrender, which took place 

*Sec. of the Navy, Annual Report, 1898, App., pp. 505-602; Long, New 
Am. Navy, II., 28-42. 



494 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

on the 17th. Shafter's command was by this time in a serious 
state of health and anxious to return home. Malarial fevers had 
so weakened the men that an epidemic of yellow-fever, which 
had appeared sporadically throughout the command, was greatly 
feared. The situation was desperate, and the war department 
apparently deaf to all representations of the case. Under these 
circumstances the division and brigade commanders and the 
surgeons met at General Shafter's headquarters early in August 
and signed a round-robin addressed to the secretary of war urging 
the immediate removal of the corps to the United States. This 
action was much criticised at the time, but it had the desired 
effect, and on August 4 orders were given to remove the com- 
mand to Montauk Point, Long Island. The movement was 
begun at once and completed before the end of the month. 

The surrender of Santiago left General Miles free to carry out 
plans already matured for the invasion of Porto Rico. He left 
Guantanamo, July 21, with 3415 men, mostly volunteers, con- 
voyed by a fleet under the command of Captain Higginson, and 
landed at Guanica on the 25th. Early next morning General 
Garretson pushed forward with part of his brigade and drove the 
Spanish forces from Yauco, thus getting possession of the railroad 
to Ponce. General Miles was reinforced in a few days by the 
commands of Generals Wilson, Brooke, and Schwan, raising his 
entire force to 16,973 officers and men. In about two weeks they 
had gained control of all the southern and western portions of the 
island, but hostilities were suspended by the peace protocol be- 
fore the conquest of Porto Rico was completed. The American 
losses in this campaign were three killed and forty wounded.* 

The last engagement of the war was the assault on Manila, 
which was captured August 13, 1898, by the forces under General 
Merritt, assisted by Admiral Dewey's squadron. This occurred 
the day after the signing of the peace protocol, the news of which 
did not reach the Philippines until several days later. 

v. 

CONTROVERSIES CAUSED BY THE WAR. 

Two controversies growing out of the war with Spain assumed 
such importance that they cannot be passed by. The first related 
to the conduct of the war department, which was charged with 
inefficiency resulting from political appointments and corruption 
in the purchase of supplies. The most serious charge was that 
made by Major-General Miles, commanding the army, who de- 

* Major-General commanding the Army, Report, 1898, pp. 138-147, 226-243, 
246-266. 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 495 

clared that much of the refrigerated beef furnished the troops 
was "embalmed beef/' preserved with secret chemicals of an 
injurious character. In September, 1898, President McKinley 
appointed a commission to investigate these charges, and the 
hearings held were sensational in the extreme. Commissary- 
General Eagan read a statement before the commission which was 
so violent in its abuse of the commanding general that he was 
later court-martialled and sentenced to dismissal for conduct un- 
becoming an officer and a gentleman, though this sentence was 
commuted by the President to suspension from rank and duty, 
but without loss of pay. The report of the commission* failed 
to substantiate General Miles's charges, but it was not satisfactory 
or convincing. In spite of its efforts to whitewash things, the 
commission had to report that the secretary of war had failed 
to "grasp the situation." Many leading newspapers demanded 
Alger's resignation, but President McKinley feared to discredit 
the administration by dismissing him. Nevertheless, a coolness 
sprang up between them ; and several months later, when Alger 
became a candidate for the Michigan senatorship, with the open 
support of elements distinctly hostile to the administration, the 
President asked for his resignation, which was tendered July 
19, 1899.f 

The other controversy, which waged in the papers for months, 
was as to whether Sampson or Schley was in command at the 
battle of Santiago. As a reward for their work on that day, the 
President advanced Sampson eight numbers, Schley six, Captain 
Clark of the Oregon six, and the other captains five. These 
promotions were all confirmed by the Senate save those of Samp- 
son and Schley, a number of senators holding that Schley should 
have received at least equal recognition with Sampson. The con- 
troversy was waged inside and outside of Congress for three 
years. The officials of the navy department were for the most 
part stanch supporters of Sampson, while a large part of the 
public, under the impression that the department was trying to 
discredit Schley, eagerly championed his cause. Finally, at the 
request of Admiral Schley, who was charged in certain publica- 
tions with inefficiency and even cowardice, a court of inquiry was 
appointed July 26, 1901, with Admiral Dewey as president, for the 
purpose of inquiring into the conduct of Schley during the war 
with Spain. The opinion of the court was that his service prior 
to June 1 was " characterized by vacillation, dilatoriness, and lack 
of enterprise." Admiral Dewey differed from the opinions of his 
colleagues on certain points, and delivered a separate opinion, 

* Senate Docs., 56 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 221, 8 vols, 
f Nation, LXIX., 61. 



400 THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 

in the course of which he took up the question as to who was in 
command at Santiago, a point which had not been considered 
by the court. His conclusion was that Schley "was in absolute 
command and is entitled to the credit due to such commanding 
officer for the glorious victory which resulted in the total destruc- 
tion of the Spanish ships." This made matters worse than ever. 
Secretary Long approved the findings of the majority of the court 
and disapproved Dewey's separate opinion. Schley appealed 
from the findings of the court to the President. February 18, 
1902, President Roosevelt's memorandum, in which he reviewed 
the whole controversy, was made public. He declared that the 
court had done substantial justice to Schley. As regards the 
question of command at Santiago, he said that technically Samp- 
son commanded the fleet, and Schley the western division, but 
that after the battle began not a ship took orders from either 
Sampson or Schley, except their own two vessels. "It was a 
captains' fight."* 

The Spanish war revealed many serious defects in the American 
military system, some of which have been remedied by the re- 
organization of the army and the creation of a general staff, f It 
demonstrated the necessity of military evolutions on a large scale 
in time of peace, so as to give the general officers experience in 
handling and the quartermaster and commissary departments ex- 
perience in equipping and supplying large bodies of troops; it 
showed the folly and danger of appointing men from civil life 
through political influence to positions of responsibility in any 
branch of the military or naval service; it showed the value of 
field-artillery, of smokeless powder, and of high-power rifles of the 
latest model; it also showed the necessity of having on hand a 
large supply of the best war material ready for use. While every 
American is proud of the magnificent record of the navy, it must 
not be imagined that the war with Spain was a conclusive test 
of its invincibility, for, however formidable the Spanish cruisers 
appeared at the time, later information revealed the fact that 
through the neglect of the Spanish government they were very 
far from being in a state of first-class efficiency. 

* Proceedings of the Schley Court of Inquiry, House Docs., 57 Cong., I Sess., 
No. 485. 
f Act of February 14, 1903, U. S. Statutes at Large, XXXII., pt. i., p. 830.' 



THE BATTLES OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 497 



SYNOPSIS OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, BE- 
TWEEN THE BATTLES OF MANILA AND SANTIAGO, 
1898, AND THE BATTLE OF TSU-SHIMA, 
OR SEA OF JAPAN, 1905. 

a.d. 1899. War between Great Britain and the Transvaal Re- 
public begins. Boer siege of Ladysmith. British victory at 
Moclder River. General Buller defeated at the Tugela. Field- 
Marshal Roberts and Lord Kitchener ordered to South Africa. 
First trial of Captain Dreyfus, accused of selling French military 
secrets to Germany, a verdict of guilty being returned. 

1900. Surrender of Cronje to Lord Roberts and relief of Lady- 
smith. Pretoria surrendered to the British. The Transvaal pro- 
claimed to be British territory. Outbreak of the Boxer troubles 
in China. Attack upon the foreign legations in Peking. Relief 
of the legations by the allied expeditionary forces. 

1901. Aguinaldo, chief of the Filipino insurrectionists, captured 
by General Funston. The invasion of Venezuela by Colombians 
repulsed. 

1902. Convention signed at Peking between China and Russia, 
the latter agreeing to evacuate Manchuria. Meeting of the first 
Congress of the Cuban republic. Treaty of peace between Great 
Britain and the Boers signed. Civil government established in 
the Philippines. End of the Venezuelan revolution ; also of civil 
war in Colombia. Great Britain and Germany present an ulti- 
matum to Venezuela, and seize the Venezuelan fleet and custom- 
house. 

1903. Close of the Venezuelan controversy. The reciprocity 
treaty between the United States and Cuba ratified. Massacre of 
Jews at Kishineff, Russia. The Russians reoccupy the Province 
of New Chang, Manchuria. The King and Queen of Servia 
assassinated at Belgrade, and Peter Karageorgevitch proclaimed 
king. The Republic of Panama proclaimed. 

1904. British expedition to Thibet, under Colonel Young- 
husband, reaches Lhasa. War between Russia and Japan begins. 
The Japanese capture Kinshow and Naushan Hill. The Russian 
Pacific fleet attempts a sortie from Port Arthur and is driven 
back by Admiral Togo. The Japanese win the battle of Liao- 
yang. The Russian Baltic fleet sails from Cronstadt. The Rus- 
sians fire upon some English fishing -boats in the North Sea, 
killing two men and injuring many others. The Japanese capture 
203-Metre Hill at Port Arthur. 

1905. Capitulation of Port Arthur. Battle of Mukden. 



498 THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BATTLE OF TSU-SHIMA, 1905. 

It may be said that the seeds of conflict between Russia and 
Japan were sown in the seventeenth century. It was then that 
Peter the Great conceived an ambition for seaports and power 
upon the Pacific, and in the glacier-like progress of Russian policy 
this ambition was realized. Siberia was conquered. The nine- 
teenth century saw Russia making her way steadily across Asia, 
conquering and assimilating native tribes, and disturbing England 
by her nearness to the back door of India. In 1861 Vladivostok 
was founded on the Gulf of Peter the Great in the Sea of Japan, 
and Russia had obtained a Pacific seaport. The prizes of the 
war between China and Japan, 1894-95, were wrested from Japan 
through the influence of the great powers. Among the results 
of the protests, negotiations, and intrigue which followed the war 
were the withdrawal of Japan from the Liao-tung peninsula; a 
treaty providing for the independence of Corea; the relinquish- 
ment of Port Arthur by the Japanese, and in 1898 its occupa- 
tion by the Russians, under a secret treaty with China. Thus 
Russia obtained a Pacific seaport free from ice, and from China 
again she obtained permission to build to Port Arthur a branch 
line from Harbin on the main line of the great trans-Siberian rail- 
road, opened in 1897. Soldiers and colonists were transported to 
Manchuria, and supplies and fortifications were multiplied at 
Port Arthur. Russia's promises to evacuate Manchuria proved 
fruitless. Japan saw in the immediate future a Russian occupa- 
tion of Corea as well as Manchuria, with Russia facing her on the 
Pacific impregnably established, and barring Japan from hope 
of the expansion on the mainland, which was essential for her 
development. Japan's protests were unavailing. But for years 
she had been preparing to measure her strength against the giant 
empire of Russia. The outcome of the war with China had left 
her in no doubt as to the issue presented. Japan had prepared her- 
self for war. Russia had not. But Russia's policy of evasion and 
procrastination was abruptly ended when, on February 6, 1904, 
Japan recalled her minister from St. Petersburg, and Russia on 
the same day recalled her minister from Tokio. 

Without awaiting a formal declaration of hostilities, Admiral 



THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 499 

Togo, on February 8, attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. 
The injuries inflicted in this and a subsequent attack, and in the 
sinking of two Russian cruisers near Chemulpo on February 
8, gave Japan at once the naval supremacy in the Pacific. She 
could move her army to the mainland in safety, and on Febru- 
ary 18 the Japanese First Army, under Kuroki, entered Corea. 
On May 16 the Japanese Second Army, under Oku, occupied 
the Liao-tung peninsula, and on the 23d the Third Army, under 
Nodzu, advanced into the territory between that occupied by 
its predecessors. On May 1 Kuroki had defeated Zassulitch at 
the Yalu, and there followed the defeat of Stoessel and the in- 
vestment of Port Arthur, the defeat of Stakelberg's attempt at 
relief, and the months of the bloody siege with its terrific fighting 
which terminated in the surrender of Port Arthur on January 
2, 1905. Meantime, Oyama, in supreme command, had repulsed 
Kuropatkin in August and September in the great battle of 
Liao-yang, and the Russian army of Manchuria retreated to 
Mukden. But the capture of Port Arthur left the Japanese a 
comparatively free hand. In early March, 1905, Kuropatkin 
was driven from Mukden, and the Japanese, always pressing on, 
occupied Tie-ling on March 16. The great land campaigns of 
the Japanese had been carried on with absolute accuracy and 
uniform success. On the sea Japan was in control, but Russia's 
ineffectiveness had moved her to the desperate step of sending 
her Baltic fleet to the rescue. 

For months Russia had paltered with a situation which was 
growing worse with every day that passed. It was the general 
belief that the Russian reserve fleet would never leave the Baltic 
Sea, or that if it did it would never arrive at its destination. But 
finally, on October 15, 1904, Admiral Rojestvensky actually sailed 
from Cronstadt, and the last act of the great drama had begun. 

It had been reported that the Russian ships were unseaworthy, 
badly found, commanded by incompetent officers, and manned 
by mutinous and inexperienced crews. The first important in- 
cident of the long cruise seemed to give color to these dismal 
statements. While off the Dogger bank in the German Ocean the 
Russian vessels, under the impression that they were about to be 
attacked by a flotilla of Japanese torpedo-boats, fired upon some 
defenceless English fishing craft, killing several men. Without 
waiting to determine the results of his action, the Russian ad- 
miral continued to steam southward, apparently in panic flight. 
International complications seemed inevitable, but Great Britain 
accepted the Russian apology and a money indemnity, and the 
incident was closed. 

In spite of this ill-omened beginning, the first purpose of 
the movement was successfully accomplished. At Tangier the 



500 THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 

armada was divided, the older ships and cruisers taking the 
Suez Canal route, while Admiral Rojestvensky, with the battle- 
ship squadron, made the long journey around the Cape of Good 
Hope. At Madagascar the discouraging news of Port Arthur's 
fall on January 2, 1905, was received, but no motion was made 
by the home government to recall the fleet. Arriving off the 
coast of Annam, in French Indo-China, on April 13, the Russians 
spent nearly a month in refitting, until the earnest protest of the 
Japanese government compelled their withdrawal from French 
ports. 

Early in May-, 1905, Admiral Rojestvensky effected a junction 
with the cruiser division under Admiral Folkersahm, and a few 
days later he was still further reinforced by Admiral Nebogatoff, 
commanding the third squadron of the Russian reserve. The com- 
bined fleet then numbered eight battle-ships, seventeen cruisers 
and coast defence vessels, nine torpedo-boat destroyers, sixteen 
transports, two repair-ships, two hospital ships, and several aux- 
iliaries — truly a formidable armada. In spite of all his difficul- 
ties, the Russian commander had brought this great fleet over 
thousands of miles of stormy water, and assembled it, without 
the loss of a vessel, on the theatre of the coming conflict — no mean 
feat of seamanship, as all the world was now ready to allow. 

On May 9, 1905, the fleet left Annam, and for nearly a fort- 
night its precise whereabouts remained a profound secret — a most 
astonishing situation, when one considers that the Japanese au- 
thorities were making every effort to locate the invading force. 
On May 26 the Russians were unofficially reported as being south 
of Kinshin, but it was not until May 27, or the actual day of the 
battle, that Admiral Togo could be certain of his enemy's position 
or intentions. 

The Russian plan of action was simple. Port Arthur had 
fallen months before, and now the only refuge was the strongly 
fortified Siberian port of Vladivostok. If Rojestvensky could 
reach Vladivostok he would obtain a base of supplies, and, under 
the guns of its citadel, he could refit, and then choose his oppor- 
tunity for the final measurement of strength. And this is pre- 
cisely what the Japanese were determined to prevent; Rojest- 
vensky must be forced to give battle while his ships were still in 
the disorganized condition consequent upon their long and trying 
voyage. 

To reach Vladivostok the direct course was through the 
straits dividing Corea from Japan, and the puzzling question was 
the particular passage that Rojestvensky would attempt. The 
Japanese engineers had parcelled out the whole area of sea 
between the island of Quelport and Vladivostok into a series 
of gigantic squares resembling those of a chess-board. At five 



THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 



501 



o'clock on the morning of May 27 the Japanese cruiser Shinam 
Maru reported, by wireless, to Admiral Togo that the Russian 
fleet had been sighted in Square 203. This would indicate that 
they were making for the eastern channel, between the island of 
Tsu-shima and the Japanese mainland. If the Russians could 
get through in safety they would be in the open waters of the Sea 
of Japan, and would be able to make a dash for Vladivostok. 

Admiral Rojestvensky had learned of the proximity of the 
Japanese fleet, through the interception of their wireless telegraphic 
messages, as early as the evening of May 26. The weather was 
misty, and a heavy sea was on. The Russian ships were top-heavy, 




502 THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 

owing to the amount of coal stowed on their upper works, and 
they rolled badly, affording an uncertain platform for the working 
of the big guns. 

The Russian fleet advanced in two columns, headed by the 
battle - ships. Some Japanese cruisers were sighted about nine 
o'clock, and shortly after eleven the Russian ship Vladimir 
Monomach fired the first gun. The Japanese sheered off, without 
replying, and at half -past eleven the firing ceased. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon Admiral Togo hoisted his battle 
signal. It read : " The salvation or the fall of the empire depend 
upon the results of this engagement; do your utmost, every one 
of you." 

The Russian forces engaged in the battle included eight battle- 
ships, twelve cruisers, thirteen destroyers, and five auxiliary cruis- 
ers. On the Japanese side Admiral Togo commanded four bat- 
tle-ships, twenty -two cruisers, twenty destroyers, sixty -seven 
torpedo-boats and thirteen submarines, besides an indefinite 
number of auxiliary cruisers. It thus appears that the Japanese 
had by far the greater number of vessels, but in broad-side gun- 
fire the Russians held a decided advantage. In the secondary 
armament the Japanese were superior, and all the torpedo-boats 
were also on their side. The bottoms of the Russian vessels were 
foul, and their average fleet speed was twelve knots as compared 
to fifteen knots for the Japanese. In discipline, gunnery, and 
morale the Japanese had all the advantage. 

Togo's principal object was to prevent the escape of the 
Russians to the north, or in the direction of Vladivostok. Ac- 
cordingly, as the Japanese ships approached, they suddenly swung 
around so as to cross the Russian column on the diagonal, instead 
of steaming past on a parallel course. The effect of this manoeu- 
vre was to bring a crushing and concentrated fire on the leading 
Russian ships, while those in the rear had their guns masked by 
their own vessels. 

At a little past two o'clock, May 27, the general engagement 
began at a distance of eight thousand yards. The aim of the 
Japanese gunners was much the better, the score being in the 
proportion of three and then four hits to one. The Osliabya was 
soon in flames, and the Suvaroff, Admiral Rojestvensky's flag- 
ship, was literally pounded to pieces. The Russians were forced 
off to the southward, and the line became disorganized. 

A little after three o'clock the Osliabya foundered. At four 
o'clock the Russian admiral, wounded and unconscious, was trans- 
ferred from the burning and dismantled Suvaroff to a torpedo- 
boat destroyer, which later in the day was compelled to surrender 
to a Japanese cruiser. 

At long range, the terrible and unequal duel continued. The 



THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 503 

weather had been clear, but now the scene was enshrouded with 
fog and drifting smoke. Yet there was no escape for the un- 
fortunate Russians; so often as they tried to make for the east or 
north the Japanese drove them back, and their only hope lay in 
the approaching darkness. 

One catastrophe followed another. The Alexander III. fell 
out of position, and shortly afterwards capsized and sunk. The 
Borodino's magazine exploded and carried her to the bottom. 
Moreover, the secondary engagement between the cruisers had 
gone overwhelmingly against the Russians. In two hours the 
division was in complete disorder. Admiral Enquist, with three 
Russian cruisers, escaped to Manila, where the vessels were 
promptly interned until the end of the war. 

At sunset Admiral Togo withdrew his line of battle-ships, and 
the torpedo fleet were ordered into action. Like wolves they 
leaped upon their wearied and disorganized prey. All through 
the night they harried the flying and scattered Russian ships, and 
their torpedoes did deadly work; the far horizon-line was lit up by 
the flames of burning ships and the air was heavy with the reek 
of smoke and the stench of carnage. 

On the morning of May 28 the Russian fleet had been reduced 
to five ships, under command of Admiral NebogatofT. Quickly 
Admiral Togo was after him. The range of the Russian guns was 
less than that of the Japanese, and the latter could strike their 
exhausted and discouraged enemy from a distance and at leisure. 
Human nature could bear no more, and at half-past ten o'clock 
on the morning of May 28 Nebogatoff hauled down his flag and 
surrendered. The battle of Tsu-shima was ended. 

The material results of the engagement gave the Japanese a 
victory almost unparalleled in naval annals. The Russians lost 
twenty-two vessels sunk and five captured, while only two ships 
actually escaped and finally reached Vladivostok. The Japanese 
lost one hundred and sixteen men killed and five hundred and 
thirty-eight wounded. Six thousand Russians were taken prison- 
er, while upward of fourteen thousand men were killed, wounded, 
or met death through drowning. Several hundred Russians were 
rescued from their sinking vessels by the Japanese, whose hu- 
manity, indeed, was as conspicuous as their bravery. 

As an epoch-making event the battle of the Sea of Japan must 
rank with Salamis, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and 
Trafalgar. Once again, within the course of a few short hours, 
had the map of the world been changed ; the aggressions of Rus- 
sia in the Orient had been checked; and Japan, now a world 
power, had taken her rightful place in the council of the nations. 

There followed, on June 8, President Roosevelt's suggestion of 
negotiations for peace. There was little more warfare of con- 
33 



504 THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA. 

sequence, although Saghalien was captured by the Japanese on 
July 31. On August 9 the Japanese and Russian envoys met at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and a treaty of peace was signed 
on September 5 — the official conclusion of a bloody conflict which 
had placed Japan in a new light before the world. 






INDEX. 



Abraham, Plains of, 415, 419. 

Acadia ceded to England, 410. 

Ackland, Lady Harriet, conduct at 
Saratoga, 320-322. 

Ackland, Major, at Saratoga, 316; 
wounded, 320-322. 

Adolphus, Gustavus, King of Sweden, 
257. 

jEmilianus, Scipio, destroys Carthage 
and Numantium, 113. 

jEmilius, Paulus, defeats Perses at 
Pydna, 113. 

Aetius, Roman general, 144; army, 
154; effects junction with Theo- 
doric, 155; commands right wing 
at Chalons, 155; jealousy, 156. 

Agathocles, wars with Carthaginians, 
80-81. 

Aguinaldo, Emilio, capture, 497. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 296. 

Alcibiades, Athenian general, 45; 
harangue in Spartan assembly, 
45-47. 

Alexander the Great, born, 55; King 
of Macedon, 56; character, 58; 
Arrian on, 59; Raleigh on, 59; Na- 
poleon on, 60; conquests, 61-63; 
army at Arbela, 67-68; in sight of 
Persian army, 70; disposition of 
troops, 71-73; valor, 74; form of 
attack, 75; manoeuvres, 77; victory, 
78; enters Arbela, 79; crisis of 
career, 79; later exploits, 79-80; 
death, 80. 

Alger, R. A., as Secretary of War, 
486; resignation, 495. 

Alghafeki, Abderrahman Ibn Abdillah, 
governor of Spain, 163; character, 
164; defeats Count Eudo, 165; en- 



counter with Martel, 165-167; de- 
feat and death, 166. 

America, independence, 298; ad- 
vancement, 299; De Tocqueville on, 
300-301; Macgregor on, 301-303; 
intercourse with China, 304; Eng- 
land's policy toward, 305; inde- 
pendence recognized by England, 
326; King William's War, 409; 
French and Indian war, 410; the 
results of Yorktown, 427-428. 

Americans, victory at Saratoga, 305- 
326; friction with France over trib- 
utaries of the Alleghany, 410; vic- 
tory at Bennington, 421 ; storm 
Stony Point, 421 ; defeated by 
Miami Indians, 428; capture York, 
429. 

Amherst, Jeffrey, commander-in-chief 
in America, 412; operations, 417. 

Andre, John, capture, 421. 

Anjou, Philip of, dominions, 258; Spain 
bequeathed to, 258, 265; extent of 
Empire, 265. 

Anne, Queen, supports Alliance, 258, 
267; death, 295. 

Antalcidas, peace of, 55. 

Antietam, battle, 432. 

Antigonus killed, 81. 

Antiochus, King of Syria, 112. 

Antoninus, Marcus, repels Romans, 141. 

Arabs, loss at Toulouse, 166; chron- 
iclers, 166, 167. 

Arbela, situation, 64; Darius at, 65; 
Alexander's army, 67, 74; Darius's 
plan of battle, 69; plan of battle, 
73; description of battle, 75-77; 
Persians defeated, 78; Alexander 
enters, 79. 



506 



INDEX. 



Aristides at Marathon, 8, 21, 23, 24. 

Ariston, Admiral, at Syracuse, 51. 

Arietta, mother of William the Con- 
queror, 171. 

Arminius, victory over Romans, 119; 
national hero, 119, 131; marriage, 
122; insurrection against Romans, 
122, 124; attacks Varius, 126, 127; 
victory, 129; independence of Ger- 
many gained by victory, 131; fate 
of wife and child, 132; contest with 
Germanicus, 133, 135, 136; inter- 
view with brother, 133, 134; en- 
gages Marobodnus, 136 ; assassi- 
nated, 136; honors paid to mem- 
ory, 137; ode to, by Klopstock, 
139, 140. 

Arnold, Benedict, at Saratoga, 310; 
encounter with Burgoyne, 313; 
deprived of command, 317; wound- 
ed, 318; treason, 421. 

Arrian, quoted, 58, 59, 65, 66, 71, 72; 
integrity, 66. 

Artaphernes commands Persian army, 
16, 17. 

Artillery first used, 210. 

Asdrubal. See Hasdrubal. 

Ashburton Treaty, 430. 

Athenians, at Marathon, 2-4; assist 
Ionians, 14, 15; defy Darius, 16; 
aid Eretria, 17; battle with Per- 
sians, 23-26; losses, 27; aid Egyp- 
tians, 34; besiege Syracuse, 38; 
navy, 39, 43; ends reinforcements 
to Syracuse, 50; resources, 51; de- 
feat, 54. 

Athens, visited by pestilence, 35; 
truce with Lacedaemon, 35; power, 
38-41; tyranny, 40; naval forces, 
41; ambition, 42; perseverance, 50; 
power broken, 54; democracy re- 
stored, 55. 

Attica, extent, 10. 

Attila, King of Huns, 143; fame, 148; 
character, 149; titles assumed, 150, 
155; conquests and kingdom, 151 
and note; founds Buda, 151, 152; 
murders brother, 151, 152; invita- 
tion from Honoria, 153; army, 154; 
siege of Orleans, 155; description 
of battle, 156; defeat, 157. 



Austria, Don John of, defeats Turks 

at Lepanto, 227. 
Austria, misgovernment, 162. 

Bandricourt De, interview with Joan 
of Arc, 214. 

Banks, N. P., task in Louisiana, 440; 
Port Hudson, 440. 

Battle Abbey, site, 184; King Har- 
old's defeat, 185; interest attached 
to spot, 186. 

Baum, Colonel, defeat at Benning- 
ton, 312. 

Becket, Thomas a, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 205. 

Bedford, Duke of, victory at Ver- 
neuil, 207. 

Bedford, Regent, refused to accept 
surrender of Orleans, 212; on Joan 
of Arc, 223, 224. 

Bingham, Sir Richard, advises Queen 
Elizabeth, 240. 

Blanco, Ramon, and Cervera's fleet, 
491. 

Blenheim, Battle of, 259-281; battle- 
ground, 276; plan of battle, 277; 
disposition of forces, 277; allies, 
278; battle, 278; Marlborough res- 
cues centre of army, 279; valor of 
Prince Eugene, 279; crisis of bat- 
tle, 280; victory for Marlborough, 
281; losses, 281; results of victory, 
281. 

Bliicher, Marshal, commands army of 
Lower Rhine, 347; troops under, 
348; position of army, 349; at 
Ligny, 353, 360; interview with 
Wellington, 357; injured, 362; en- 
ergy, 367; prevented from sacking 
Paris, 407. See also Waterloo. 

Blue, Victor, in Spanish War, 487. 

Bolingbrooke quoted, 262, 263, 269, 
284. 

Boston, massacre, 420; tea-party, 421. 

Braddock, General, defeat at Fort 
Duquesne, 410. 

Breyman, Lieutenant-Colonel, defeat- 
ed by Americans, 312. 

Brown, John, hanged, 432. 

Brunswick, Duke of, generalissimo of 
allied army, 333; captures Longwy 



INDEX. 



507 



and Verdun, 333; defeat, 341. See 
also Valmy. 

Bull Run, battle, 432. 

Burgoyne, John, commands English 
army in America, 305, 308; plan of 
expedition, 307, 308 n.; army, 308; 
captures Fort Ticonderoga, 309; 
confident of success, 310; at Fort 
Edward, 311; encamps at Saratoga, 
312; attacks Americans, 313, 315; 
hears from Clinton, 313; desertions, 
314; defeat and retreat, 318, 319; 
capitulates, 324. 

C^sar, Augustus, conquers Gaul, 
115; foreign policy, 120; grief at 
death of Varus, 130. 

Callimachus, Athenian war -ruler, 1; 
vote at Marathon, 9; death, 25. 

Campbell, Major, at Yorktown, 424. 

Canute, King of England, 170. 

Carmagnoles, revolutionary volun- 
teers, 330. 

Carthage, sues for peace, 82; power 
shattered, 86; inferior to Rome, 
87, 89; rise, 87; commerce and nav- 
igation, 88; agricultural industry, 
89; races, 90; army, 90, 91, 105, 
106; a Roman province, 113. 

Carthaginians besiege Syracuse, 55, 56. 

Cartier, Jacques, voyages to St. Law- 
rence, 409. 

Cervera, Pasqual, squadron, 483; at 
Santiago, 484; battle, 491-493. 

Chalons, battle, 143-157; Attila's 
camp, 143; importance, 144; meet- 
ing of Romans and Huns, 154; de- 
scription of battle, 155 156; retreat 
of Attila, 156. 

Champlain, Samuel, settles Quebec, 
409. 

Charlemagne, reign, 169. 

Charles II. of Spain, death, 258, 265. 

Charles V., Emperor of Germany, 
227; abdication, 227. 

Charles VIII. of France invades Italy, 
226. 

Charles XII., King of Sweden, 258; 
defeats Russians at Narva, 258; 
character, 289; criticised by Na- 
poleon, 289, 290, 291; hoped to 



crush Russia, 290; invasion of Rus- 
sia, 291; besieges Pultowa, 292; 
defeat, 293; death, 295. 

Cherusci, German tribe, 119; English 
akin to, 131. 

China, war with Japan, 473. 

Churchill, John. See Marlborough. 

Civilization, Asiatic, 11; European, 
12; promoted by victories of Alex- 
ander the Great, 161-163; progress 
in Europe, 163. 

Claudius, Emperor of Rome, 141. 

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 431. 

Clovis establishes French monarchy in 
Gaul, 157. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, endeavors to co- 
operate with Burgoyne, 312, 313; 
defeats Americans, 315; sends sup- 
plies to Burgoyne, 316. 

Columbus, Christopher, discovers New 
World, 226. 

Conon, Admiral, defeats Lacedaemo- 
nian fleet, 55. 

Constantinople taken by Mahomet II., 
226. 

Corinth, stormed by Romans, 113. 

Cornwallis, Lord, surrenders to Wash- 
ington, 326; at Yorktown, 425, 
426. 

Cortes, Hernando, conquest of Mex- 
ico, 227. 

Cromwell, Oliver, lord-protector of 
England, 257. 

Crusade, the, 204, 205. 

Cuba, the Virginius affair, 474, 475; 
Ten Years' War, 475; insurrection 
(1895), 475; blowing up of Maine, 
475; blockade, 482; Santiago cam- 
paign, 484-494. 

Cuneiform inscriptions, 13. 

Cyrus the Younger killed at Cunaxa, 
55. 

Darius, Codomannus, at Arbela, 64; 
precautions, 65; army, 65; skill, 
65, 107; apprehends night attack, 
71; disposition of army, 71; plan 
of attack, 75; frustrated by Alex- 
ander, 76, 77; flight, 77; defeat, 78; 
death, 79. 

Darius, Hystaspis, power, 14; armies, 



508 



INDEX. 



16; demands submission of Greeks, 
16; defeated at Marathon, 21-27; 
death, 33. 

Dauphin, the, character, 209; court, 
212; interview with Joan of Arc, 
215; crowned King Charles VII. 
of France, 223; doubt of legiti- 
macy, 224. 

Datis, commands Persian army, 16; 
attacks Eretria, 17; at Marathon, 
18; defeat, 25, 26. 

Davis, Jefferson, elected president of 
Confederate States, 432. 

Decius, Emperor of Rome, slain, 141. 

Declaration of Independence, 421. 

Deerfield massacre, 409. 

Demosthenes, Athenian general, com- 
mands expedition against Syra- 
cuse, 50; early exploits, 51; en- 
deavors to recover EpipolaB, 52; 
repulsed, 53; death, 54. 

Detmoldt, victory of Arminius over 
Varus at, 125. 

Deuxponts, Count, at Yorktown, 424. 

Dewey, George, preparations for 
Spanish War, 476; fleet, 477; battle 
in Manila Bay, 478-479; and Ger- 
man fleet, 480; capture of Manila, 
494; and Sampson-Schley contro- 
versy, 495, 496. 

Dionysius, defends Syracuse against 
Carthaginians, 55. 

Drake, Sir Francis, exploits, 228; 
coolness, 229; cruise off Tagus, 
237; sails to Corunna, 250; on de- 
feat of Spanish Armada, 256. 

Dreyfus, Captain, trial, 497. 

Drusus, commander of Romans in 
Illyricum, 136. 

Ducret, General, at Sedan, 464, 465. 

Dumouriez, commander-in-chief of 
French at Valmy, 330, 333; treat- 
ment of Carmagnoles, 331; arrival 
at Sedan, 333; manoeuvres, 334; 
skill, 335; communicates with Kel- 
lermann, 335. See also Valmy. 

Dundas, Lieutenant-Colonel at York- 
town, 425. 

Dunois, General, at siege of Orleans, 
216. 

Duquesne, Fort, capture, 410, 411. 



Eagan, C. P., court-martial, 495. 

Edward I., conquers Wales, 206. 

Edward III., invades France, 206. 

Edward the Confessor, called to 
throne, 170; death, 177. 

Egbert, King of Wessex, 170. 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 227 ; 
state of England at time of acces- 
sion, 230; death of Mary Queen of 
Scots, 234; denounced as a heretic, 
235; loyalty to subjects, 236; pre- 
cautions, 237; letters to people, 
238; effects, 239; address to army, 
240; councillors, 241; navy, 244, 
251; death, 257. 

England, conquered by Normans (see 
Hastings); fails to conquer France 
(see Joan of Arc); resists Spain, 
233; policy, 234-236; desires to 
treat for peace with Spain, 237; 
commencement of Civil War, 257; 
revolution, 258; state under Stuart 
reign, 263; join Grand Alliance 
against France, 265; war with 
France, 295; recognizes indepen- 
dence of United States, 326; war 
with United States, 342; long peri- 
od of peace, 344 ; declares war 
against Spain, 420. 

Epaminondas killed, 55. 

Eretria, confederate of Athens, 2; as- 
sists Ionia, 15; attacked byDatis, 17. 

Eudo, Count, encounter with Ab- 
derrahman, 165. 

Eugene, Prince, meeting with Marl- 
borough, 274; opposes Marsin at 
Blenheim, 278; valor, 279; losses, 
281. 

Evans, R. D., in Spanish War, 484. 

Ewell, R. S., at Gettysburg, 443, 
448, 449. 

Farnese, Alexander, Prince of 
Parma, 232; his army, 234; in the 
Netherlands, 235. 

Fastolfe, Sir John, victory at Rouvrai, 
211. 

Ferdinand I., Emperor of Germany, 
227; deposed, 429. 

Ferdinand of Spain, captive of Gren- 
ada, 226; death, 227. 



INDEX. 



509 



Fisk, Major, at Yorktown, 424. 

Flaminius defeats King Philip at Cy- 
nocephalaB, 112. 

Flavius, adherence to Rome, 120; 
interview with brother, 133, 134. 

Foy, General, quoted, 92; retreat 
from Waterloo, 395. 

France, influence, 208; condition, 209; 
religion, 215; possessions, 259; de- 
feated at St. Quentin, 227; allied 
powers against, 269; sought alli- 
ance with Sweden, 284; war with 
England, 295 ; Treaty of Paris, 
296; acknowledged independence of 
United States, 326; States-General 
convened, 326 ; revolutionary prin- 
ciples, 328; a republic, 329; mis- 
conduct of army, 330, 332; invades 
Flanders, 331; England and Spain 
declare war against, 341, 342; Na- 
poleon made Emperor, 342; sur- 
render of Paris, 343; struggle with 
England, 409-410; Seven Years' 
War, 410-411; Quebec campaign, 
411-420; war with Mexico, 432; de- 
clares war against Prussia, 458. 

Francis I. of France defeated, 227. 

Franks, origin, 162. 

Fraser, Brigadier-General, at Saratoga, 
308; gallantry, 317; wounded, 318; 
death, 319; burial, 320. 

Frederick II., King of Prussia, 295. 

Fredericksburg, battle, 432. 

Frobisher, Sir Martin, exploits, 228. 

Frontenac, Fort, capture, 410, 411. 

Funston, General, captures Aguinal- 
do, 497. 

Gage, General Thomas, governor, 
421. 

Gama, Vasco di, expedition, 226. 

Garfield, James A., assassinated, 472. 

Garrison, W. L., attacks slavery, 430. 

Gates, General Horatio, commands 
at Saratoga, 310; army, 311; en- 
counter with Burgoyne, 313, 315, 
316; reinforced, 314; deprives Ar- 
nold of command, 317; defeats Bur- 
goyne, 318, 319; conduct toward 
British, 324, 325. See also Saratoga. 

Gauls burn Rome, 55. 



George III., accession to throne of 
England, 420. 

George IV. ascends throne of Eng- 
land, 429. 

Genseric, king of the Vandals, 142. 

Germanicus, conflict with Arminius, 
133, 135, 136; takes arms against 
Maroboduus, 136. 

Germany, struggle for freedom, 118; 
Arminius *s victory, 119; indigna- 
tion against Romans, 124; inde- 
pendence secured, 131; homage to 
Arminius, 137-139; character, 145; 
remarks on, 285. 

Gettysburg, campaign, 442-457; Lee's 
northward march, 443; federal 
movements, 444; misuse of con- 
federate cavalry, 445; Meade dis- 
places Hooker, 445; forces, 446, 447; 
Meade's plan, 447; battle, first day, 
447-449; second day, position of 
forces, 450; Lee and Longstreet, 450, 
451; Round Tops, 451, 453* posi- 
tions, 452; federal council, 453; third 
day, Culp's Hill, 453; positions, 454; 
Pickett's attack, 455, 456; Lee con- 
fesses error, 456; question of coun- 
ter-charge, 456, 457; losses, 457; 
Lee's retreat, 457; Lincoln's disap- 
pointment, 457. 

Gibbon, description of Roman army, 
107, 127 n.; account of battle of 
Chalons, 157 n. 

Gibraltar, capture, 409. 

Gimat, Lieutenant-Colonel, at York- 
town, 424. 

Gladsall, Sir William, commands 
English at siege of Orleans, 219; de- 
fence of the Tourelles, 221; death, 
222. 

Goethe, at Valmy, 339; sensations, 
329, 340, 341. 

Gonsalvo of Cordova conquers Naples, 
227. 

Golhs, allies of Rome, 144; included 
in German race, 145; leading tribe, 
146. 

Graham, Sergeant, at Waterloo, 400, 
401. 

Grand Alliance, formed, 258; de- 
clares war against France, 269. 



510 



INDEX. 



Grant, General U. S., captures Fort 
Donelson, 433; Lincoln's faith in, 
433; original plan against Vicks- 
burg, 434; destruction of Holly 
Springs depot, 434; and Halleck, 
435; in command before Vicksburg, 
435; obstacles, 435; opposing force, 
436; own force, 436; naval auxiliary, 
436; futile operations, 437; crosses 
river below Vicksburg, 438; Port 
Gibson, 438; abandons base, 438; 
victories in rear of Vicksburg, 438; 
siege, 439; receives surrender; 440; 
losses, 440. 

Gray, Lord, advises Queen Elizabeth, 
240. 

Great Britain, war with Transvaal 
Republic, 497. 

Greeks defeat Persians at Mycale, 33. 

Grenada captured, 226. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, advises Queen 
Elizabeth, 240. 

Grouchy, Marshal, failure, 362, 379. 

Guadalupe-HiJalgo Treaty, 431. 

Guise, Duke of, takes arms against 
Henry III., 238. 

Gusman, Alonzo Perez de, commands 
Spanish Armada, 249; King Philip's 
orders to, 251. 

Gylippus, Spartan general, 47; saved 
Syracuse, 49; defeats Nicias, 51. 

Hamilcar, hatred to Rome, 94; sur- 
named Barca, 95 n. 

Hamilton, Alexander, at Yorktown, 
424. 

Hancock, W. S., in Gettysburg cam- 
paign, 448, 449, 455. 

Hannibal, commands Carthaginian 
army in Spain, 82; invades Italy, 
82; invades Italy, 83; contest with 
Rome, 85; genius, 91, 92; ravages 
Italy, 93; opposed by Nero, 98, 
100; at Carusium, 99, 101; brother's 
head thrown into camp, 109; power 
broken, 112; defeated by Scipio, 
112. 

Hardrada, Harald, King of Norway, 
175; attacks England, 179; defeat 
and death, 179. 

Hardrubal, commands Carthaginian 



army in Spain, 94; outmanoeuvres 
Scipio, 94; enters Gaul, 95; enters 
Italy, 97; besieges Placentia, 97; 
opposed by Livius, 98; advance 
towards Ariminum, 101; messenger 
captured by Romans, 101, 102; 
discovers Nero's arrival at Sena, 
104; betrayed, 105; disposition of 
army, 106; death, 109. 

Harold, son of Earl of Godwn, 175; 
competitor for throne of England, 
175; oath to William of Normandy, 
176; elected king, 177; raises army, 
178; defeats Norwegians, 179; 
march to London, 181; army in- 
ferior to Normans, 183; army at 
Battle Abbey, 184, 185; reply to 
William's ultimatum, 187; on eve 
of battle, 188; directions to barons, 
192; standard, 193; wounded, 196; 
sought by Duke William, 200; 
death, 201; valor, 203; legends, 
204. 

Hastings, battle, 177-188; social ef- 
fects, 172; beneficial to England, 
172-174; landing of William the 
Conqueror, 181, 182; locality of 
battle, 184; plan of battle, 185; 
interest attached to spot, 186; eve 
of battle, 188-202; death of King 
Harold, 201; English defeated, 201, 
202; slain, 203. 

Hawke, Sir Edward, victory at Quib- 
eron Bay, 412. 

Hawkins, Sir John, exploits, 228. 

Heeren quoted, 11. 

Henry II., King of England, 205. 

Henry JIL, the Duke of Guise takes 
arms against, 238. 

Henry IV. of France conforms to 
Catholic Church, 257. 

Henry V. of England, claims crown 
of France, 206; death, 207. 

Henry VI., birth, 207. 

Henry VIII. renounces papal suprem- 
acy, 227. 

Herbert, lines from " Attila," 143, 144, 
153. 

Herodotus quoted, 15. 

Hill, A. P., at Gettysburg, 443, 447, 
450, 452. 



INDEX. 



511 



Hippias, Athenian tyrant, 2, 7, 9, 13, 
15, 18. 

Hobson, R. P., sinking of Merrimac, 
485. 

Hochstet, battle. See Blenheim. 

Honoria offers hand to Attila, 153. 

Holland opposes Louis XIV,, 263. 

Hooker, Joseph, defeat at Chancel- 
lorsville, 442; Lincoln's counsel to, 
443, 444; pursuit of Lee, 444; rise 
of cavalry, 444; relieved of com- 
mand, 445. 

Howard, Lord, refusal to obey royal 
command, 228, 249; sails to Corun- 
na, 250. 

Howe, Lord, campaign against Wash- 
ington, 312; victory over French 
fleet, 341. 

Howell, J. A., in Spanish War, 482. 

Hungary, interest in, 147; Boling- 
broke on, 263. 

Huns, formidable to Chinese, 146; 
conquests, 147; empire, 151; army, 
154. 

Ionians attack Sardis, 15. 

Jacobite rebellion, 410. 

Jameson raid, 473. 

Japan, war with China, 473; with 
Russia, 498-504 

Joan of Arc, parentage, 212; character, 
213; inspired, 214, 215, 216; inter- 
view with the Dauphin, 215; opin- 
ions of, 216; at Blois, 217; disci- 
pline, 218; sorceress, 219; at St. 
Loup, 220; attacks the Tourelles, 
221; wounded, 221, 225; captures 
the Tourelles, 222; mission ful- 
filled, 223, 224; further exploits, 
223, 225; presentments, 225; pris- 
oner, 225; burned, 226. 

Johnson, Sir William, victory at 
Niagara, 418. 

Jugurthine war, 114. 

Kellerman, Duke of Valmy, 327; 
career, 327; army, 332, 335, 337; 
at Valmy, 336; position at Water- 
loo, 338; repulses allies, 340, 341. 
See also Waterloo. 



King George's War, outbreak, 410, 

411. 
King William's War, 409. 
Klopstock, ode to Arminius, 139, 

140; quoted, 140, 141. 
Knolles, Sir Francis, advises Queen 

Elizabeth, 240. 
Kosciusko, General, at Saratoga, 314. 
Kuropatkin repulsed at Liao-yang, 

499. 

Lacedaemonians, at Marathon, 26, 27; 
against Athenians, 42; defeated by 
Antipater, 79. 

La Fayette, flight, 332, 333. 

Lamachus, Athenian general, 45. 

La Salle claims Mississippi Valley, 409, 
411. 

Latham, Dr. Robert G., referred to, 
131, 138. 

Laurens, John, at Yorktown, 424, 425. 

Lauzun, Duke de, at Yorktown, 423, 
424. 

League of Smalcald formed, 227. 

Lee, R. E., army, 442; Northern in- 
vasion, 443; forces at Gettysburg, 
443; misuse of cavalry, 444; battle, 
first day, 447; second day, 450; 
rejects Longstreet's advice, 450, 
451; third day, Culp's Hill, 453; 
Pickett's charge, 455; confesses er- 
ror, 456; retreat, 457. 

Leighton, Sir Thomas, advises Queen 
Elizabeth, 240. 

Lincoln, Abraham, elected President, 
432 ; proclamation abolishing sla- 
very, 432; faith in Grant, 433; and 
failure to crush Lee, 457; assassi- 
nated, 458. 

Lincoln, General, at Saratoga, 314. 

Lion, Richard Cceur de, King of Eng- 
land, 205. 

Livius, Marcus, elected Roman con- 
sul, 96; reconciled to Nero, 97; 
chief-in-command in Northern Italy, 
98; joined by Nero at Sena, 104; 
at Metaurus, 108. 

Longstreet, James, joins Lee, 442; 
disapproval of Northern invasion, 
450, 451, 454; opposed to Pickett's 
attack, 455; quotes Lee, 456. 



512 



INDEX. 



Louisa, Archduchess Maria, marriage, 
342. 

Louisiana, settlement, 409; purchase, 
428. 

Louis Philippe, Due de Chartres, at 
Valmy, 338. 

Louis XIV., conquests, 257, 258, 259, 
264; career, 259; talent for govern- 
ment, 260, 261 ; France indebted to, 
261; state of Germany at time of, 
262; state of Spain, 262; state of 
England, 263; opposed by Holland, 
263; ambition, 265; Spain be- 
queathed to grandson, 258, 265; 
successes, 270; defeat at Blenheim, 
281; death, 295. 

Louis XVI., trial and execution, 341. 

Liibeck, foundation, 205. 

Macaulay quoted, 123. 
McClernand, John A., raises army, 

435; before Vicksburg, 435; attacks 

Arkansas Post, 435; under Grant, 

435; in Vicksburg campaign, 436, 

438. 
Macedonian phalanx, 68; strength of 

army, 67, 68; discipline of cavalry, 

76 n. 
Macedon, Philip of, compared to Czar 

Peter, 287. 
McKinley, William, remonstrates 

against inhumanities in Cuba, 475; 

offers to mediate, 475; and Alger, 

495. 
Mackintosh, Sir James, quoted, 345, 

346. 
MacMahon, Marshal, at Sedan, 461, 

464. 
McPherson, James B., Vicksburg 

campaign, 436. 
Macready, Major, at Waterloo, 383- 

387. 
Magnus, King of Norway, preten- 
sions, 175. 
Mahomet, conquers Arabia, 157; 

death, 158. 
Mahomet II., takes Constantinople, 

226. 
Maine, sent to Havana, 475; blown 

up, 473, 475. 
Manila, naval battle, 474-481; Dew- 



ey's position before, 476; vessels 
engaged, 477; map, 478; Spanish 
defeated, 479; casualties, 479, 
480; foreign criticism, 480; ex- 
pulsion of Spain from the Pacific, 
481; captured, 494. 

Marathon, council of war, 1, 5; 
Greek forces, 2-4; Persians, 3, 4; 
plains, 10; importance, 18, 19; as- 
sociations, 20; form of attack, 23; 
valor of Persians, 24; victory of 
Greeks, 25; losses, 25-27; burials, 
27, 28; memorials, 30; effect of 
victory, 31; explanatory remarks, 
31-33. 

Mardonius, army destroyed, 33. 

Margueritte, General, at Sedan, 468. 

Marlborough, Duke of, character, 267, 
268; victories, 267, 281, 409, 410; 
commands allied armies, 269; moves 
forces towards the Rhine, 271 ; army, 
272; march, 272, 273, 274; bewil- 
dered Villeroy, 273; interview with 
Prince Eugene, 274; defeats Ba- 
varian army, 274; perilous position, 
275; council of war before Blen- 
heim, 276; crosses the Nebel, 278; 
rescues centre of army, 279. 

Maroboduus, King of Suevi, conflict 
with Arminius, 136. 

Martel, Charles, victory over the 
Saracens, 159-161; parentage and 
early career, 164; encounter with 
Abderrahman, 165, 167; name 
changed to Caldus, 166. 

Mary Queen of Scots, death, 234, 
235. 

Maximilian, Prince, at Blenheim, 277. 

Meade, George G., commands army 
of Potomac, 445; character and 
appearance, 445; forces under, 446; 
Gettysburg, first day, 447; capac- 
ity for leadership, 448 ; second 
day, position of forces, 450; Culp's 
Hill, 453; council, 453; third day, 
Pickett's attack, 455; question of 
counter-attack, 456; and Lee's re- 
treat, 457. 

Merovingian kings, 162, 164. 

Metaurus, locality, 84; battle, 84; 
crisis of contest between Rome and 



INDEX. 



513 



Carthage, 86; council of war, 104; 
Hasdrubal betrayed, 105; descrip- 
tion of battle, 108; defeat of Car- 
thaginians, 109; sentiments at 
Rome, 110-112. 

Michelet on Punic wars, 86. 

Miles, N. A., in Spanish War, 486, 
493; Porto Rico campaign, 494; 
charges of maladministration of 
army, 494, 495. 

Miltiades, history, 5; on trial, 7, 29; 
address to Callimachus, 9; dispo- 
sition of forces at Marathon, 21, 
22; outmanoeuvres Datis, 26; sub- 
sequent history, 28, 29. 

Mississippi River, discovery, 409, 411. 

Mitford referred to. 66 n. 

Mithridates the Great, King of Pon- 
tus, 114. 155. 

Monitor and Merrimac engagement. 
432. 

Montcalm, victory at Ticonderoga, 
410; capture of Fort William Henry, 
411; stand at Quebec, 414; forces, 
415; policy of defence, 416; meets 
Wolfe, 419; defeat, 420. 

Muffling, Baron, at Waterloo, 352; 
memoirs, 352 n. t 353, 357, 360. 

Napier, Sir Charles, conquers Sinde, 
430. 

Napoleon, quoted, 57, 60, 76 n. t 282, 
289, 290; contest with England, 
85; First Consul of France, 342; 
Emperor of France, 342; victory at 
Austerlitz, 342; endeavors to make 
brother King of Spain, 342; mar- 
riage, 342; goes to Elba, 343; re- 
turns from Elba, 343, 345, 346; 
endeavors to negotiate with allied 
sovereigns, 346; proclaimed an out- 
law, 347; military preparations, 
348; army, 349; address to troops, 
350; marches toward Charleroi, 351; 
successful operations, 356; sends 
Ney to Quatre Bras, 356; defeats 
Blucher, 360; marches against Eng- 
lish, 361; sends Grouchy to ob- 
struct Blucher, 362; censured the 
course pursued by Wellington, 363; 
estimate of opposing troops, 363; 



at Waterloo, 363; career, 373; dis- 
position of forces, 370, 371; cav- 
alry charges, 380; repulsed by 
British, 380; Young Guard, 382; 
description of, at Waterloo, 388; 
flight, 393, 406; surrender, 407; 
exiled to St. Helena, 429. 

Napoleon III., declares war against 
Germany. 459; at Sedan, 460, 470. 

Napoleon, Louis, proclaimed Em- 
peror, 431. 

Nativity of Our Lord, the, date of, 
116 

Nebogatoff, Admiral, at battle of 
Tsu-shima, 503. 

Nelson, Lord, death, 342. 

Nero, Caius Claudius, consul of Rome, 
95; opposed Hannibal, 98; expedi- 
tion against Hasdrubal, 102, 103; 
joins Livius at Sena, 104; at Me- 
taurus, 108; victory, 109; return to 
the south, 109; march unequalled, 
112. 

Netherlands, revolt against Spain, 
227. 

New Orleans, fall, 432. 

Ney, Marshal, occupies France, 356 ; 
at Quatre Bras, 358, 359; at Water- 
loo, 371; loss of guns, 378. See 
also Waterloo. 

Nicias, Athenian general at Syracuse, 
45; incompetency, 49; death, 54. 

Niebuhr, praise of Wellington, 406. 

Nimrod claimed as ancestor by Attila, 
149, 150. 

Nineveh, remains, 69. 

Noailles, Viscount de, at Yorktown, 
425. 

Norman, conquest, social effects, 
171-174; character, 174; appear- 
ance, 183; losses at the battle of 
Hastings, 203. 

Normandy, Duke Robert of, death, 
170. 

Normandy, Duke William of, com- 
petitor for crown of England, 175. 

Norris, Sir John, advises Queen 
Elizabeth, 240. 

Orange, William of, King of Eng- 
land, 258. 



514 



INDEX. 



Orleans, besieged, 154, 155, 207; Joan 
of Arc's victory, 208; the city, 209, 
210; the Tourelles, 210-211. 

Paris, Treaty of, 296, 420. 

Peace of Shimonoseki, 473. 

Pelet, General, at Waterloo, 404, 405. 

Peloponnesian War, 35, 37, 41, 42, 
55. 

Pemberton, John C, as a general, 436; 
Vicksburg campaign, 436; besieged, 
438, 439; surrender, 440. 

Pericles, director of Athenian councils, 
35. 

Perses, Macedonian King, defeated at 
Pydna, 113. 

Persia, army at Marathon, 4, 23; do- 
minions, 10, 13, 14; government, 11; 
attacks Eretria, 17; valor, 24; de- 
feat, 25; losses. 27; pride broken, 
31; recovers Egypt, 33, crushed by 
Alexander, 79. 

Peter the Great, accession, 258; char- 
acter, 287; defeats Charles XII. at 
Pultowa, 292, 293; thoughts of 
further conquests, 293, 294; death, 
295. See also Pultowa. 

Philip, King of Macedon, 55; victory 
at Chzeronea, 56; assassinated, 56. 

Philip, King of Macedonia, defeated 
at CynocephalsB, 112. 

Philip II., King of Spain, 227; con- 
quers Portugal, 227; Spain under, 
230; army and fleet, 231; foreign 
possessions, 232, 233; conquests, 
233; zeal in cause of popery, 234; 
preparations for fitting out the 
Armada, 234, 235; causes the Duke 
de Guise to take arms against 
Henry III., 238; reproaches Santa 
Cruz, 249; orders to the Duke de 
Medina Sidonia, 251; dies, 257. See 
also Spanish Armada. 

Phillips, Major-General, at Saratoga, 
308. 

Pickett, G. E., charge at Gettysburg, 
455, 456. 

Picton, Sir Thomas, at Waterloo, 401. 

Pizarro conquers Peru, 227. 

PlataBans at Marathon, 3. 

Plentheim, battle. See Blenheim. 



Ponsonby, Frederick, at Waterloo, 
401-403. 

Pontus founded, 81. 

Porter, David D., Vicksburg cam- 
paign, 436, 437, 440 n. 

Port Arthur captured, 499, 500. 

Port Hudson, Banks's expedition 
against, 440; surrender, 440. 

Port Roval founded, 409, 411. 

Praed quoted, 134, 135. 

Prideaux, Brigadier, advance on 
Niagara, 417; death, 418. 

Proctor, Redfield, on Cuban affairs, 
475, 

Pultowa, battle, 282-297; importance, 
285; extent of Sclavonic race, 286; 
besieged by Swedes, 292; Czar 
Peter to its relief, 292; his army, 
292; disparity of armies, 293: de- 
scription of battle, 293; defeat of 
Charles XII., 293. 

Punic wars, 82, 84, 86, 113. 

Quartre Bras, battle at, 358. 

Quebec, founding, 409, 411; fall, 411- 
420; Wolfe leads expedition against, 
412; departure of British fleet, 
413; Montcalm at, 414, stronghold, 
415; British ships pass, 416; sur- 
render. 420. 

Queen Annes War, outbreak, 409, 411. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, quoted, 59, 
98, 99, 108, 109, 241, 242, 252; 
commander of Plymouth, 228; ad- 
vises Queen Elizabeth, 240. 

RawJinson, Major, deciphers Cunei- 
form inscriptions, 13. 

Reformation, cause, 227. 

Reynolds, John F., command in 
Gettysburg campaign, 447; killed, 
447, 448. 

Richelieu, Cardinal, Minister of France, 
257. 

Rojestvensky, Admiral, leaves Cron- 
stadt, 499; plan of action, 500; 
forces, 502; battle with Togo, 502, 
503; defeat, 503. 

Romans, acquire Sicily, 82, 89; select 
Caius Claudius Nero, and Marcus 
Livius consuls, 95, 96; raise armies, 



INDEX. 



515 



97; feelings, 98; military system, 
107, 108; storm Corinth, 113; dis- 
cipline of armies, 124; war against 
Mithridates the Great, 114; occupy 
Germany, 119; victory over Ar- 
minius, 136; conquest of Britain, 
141; destroy Jerusalem, 141. 

Rome, captures Veii, 55; burned by 
Gauls, 55; war with Samnites, 55; 
first Punic war, 81-83 ; acquire 
Sicily, 82, 89 ; second Punic war, 
91; resistance to Hannibal, 92, 93; 
elects consuls, 95, 96; resources 
drained, 98; armies, 98; alarmed 
at Nero's expedition against Has- 
drubal, 103; joy at victory at the 
Metaurus, 108- 111; predominant 
in North Africa, 112, 113; govern- 
ment, 120; defeat of army under 
Varus, 129; power in Germany 
crushed, 131; territorial extent, 141; 
empire divided, 142; last victory, 
144; legend of the twelve vultures, 
151, 152. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, on naval prep- 
arations for Spanish War, 482; with 
Rough Riders, 486; in Cuba, 487, 
488; decision on Schley contro- 
versy, 496. 

Ross, Major, at Yorktown, 425. 

Rouarie, Marquis de la, supporter 
of revolution in France, 337. 

Rough Riders, organization, 486; in 
Cuba, 487, 488. 

Rudolph of Hapsburg, Emperor of 
Germany, 206. 

Russia, influence, 282; conquests, 283; 
power, 283; rise, 284; a Sclavonic 
people, 285 ; early history, 287 ; 
development, 288; battle of Pul- 
towa, 288; army under Peter the 
Great, 289; aggressive policy, 294; 
policy in the East, 498; Pacific sea- 
port and hold on Manchuria, 498. 

Ryswick Treaty, 258. 

St. Clair evacuates Fort Ticonderoga, 

309. 
St. Leger, General, expedition against 

Fort Stanwix, 311; defeat, 312. 
St. Quentin, French defeats, 227. 



Salisbury, Earl of, 209; besieges Or- 
leans, 210; death, 211. 

Sampson, W. T., command, 483; 
search for Cervera's squadron, 483, 
484; blockade of Santiago, 485; bat- 
tle off Santiago, 491-493 ; Schley 
controversy, 495, 496. 

Santa Anna defeated, 430. 

San Juan Hill, battle, 487, 488, 490. 

Santa Cruz, Admiral, death, 249. 

Saracens, extent of conquests, 162; 
hoped to conquer Europe, 163 ; 
invade France, 165 ; contest with 
Eudes and Martel, 165; cause of 
defeat, 166; slain, 166. 

Saratoga, victory of Americans, 298- 
326; early events, 305, 306; Eng- 
lish forces, 306, 314; American 
army, 307, 310, 314; Burgoyne 
at, 312; plan of battle, 315; de- 
scription of battle, 316, 317; Bur- 
goyne's retreat, 318, 319; success 
of Americans, 318; Lossing's ac- 
count of event, 319-321; Burgoyne 
surrounded, 322; fortitude of Brit- 
ish, 322, 323; Burgoyne's surrender, 
324; joy of Americans at victory, 
325; change of feeling in France 
over victory, 326; independence of 
United States recognized by Eng- 
land, 326. 

Saunders, Admiral, at Quebec, 412; 
bombards Beauport, 418. 

Saxons, remarks on, 131; after con- 
quest, 172; and Magna Charta, 173; 
superiority of Normans over, 174; 
slain at battle of Hastings, 203. 

Schley, W. S., flying squadron, 482, 
483, 484; search for Cervera's 
squadron, 484, 485; battle off San- 
tiago, 491-493; Sampson contro- 
versy, 495, 496. 

Schwartzenberg, Prince, commands 
army of the Upper Rhine, 347. 

Scipio, Publius, compared with Well- 
ington, 85; outmanoeuvred by Has- 
drubal, 94; defeats Hannibal, 112. 

Secession of Southern States, 432. 

Sedan, battle 459-471; forces, 459- 
461; fighting at, 362-469; capitula- 
tion, 470, 471; losses, 471. 



516 



IXDEX. 



Seleucus kingdom, 81. 

Seven Years' War, the, 296, 410, 420. 

Severus, Emperor of Rome, 141. 

Seymour, Lord Henry, blockades ports 
of Flanders, 251. 

Shafter, W. R., in Santiago campaign, 
486, 487, 491, 493, 494. 

Sherman, W. T., losses at Chickasaw 
Bayou, 434; and MeClernand, 435; 
in Vicksburg campaign, 436, 43S; 
march to the sea, 45$. 

Sicily, Athens interest in, 42; Roman 
province, S2; never conquered by 
Carthage, 89. 

Sidonia, Medina, King Philip's orders 
to, 251. 

Sigsbee, C. D., in Spanish War, 4S4. 

Sikhs, ancestors, 65. 

Sixtus V., Pope, denounces Queen 
Elizabeth, 234, 235. 

Spain, desire for peace with England, 
237; War of Succession, 409, 410; 
war with United States, 473-496. 

Spanish Armada, 22S-257; off Spanish 
coast, 229; preparation to resist, 
229; strength, 230, 251; fitting out, 
234, 235; destination, 236; descrip- 
tion, 245-247; sails, 249; plan of 
attack, 250; sights English, 251; 
engagement, 252; Parma prevented 
from joining, 253; English fire- 
ships, 253; the fight, 254, 255; de- 
feated, 255, 256. 

Spanish War, 473-496; causes, 474, 
475; war declared, 476; battle of 
Manila Bay, 477-4S0; capture of 
Manila, 4S0, 494; naval prepara- 
tions, 482; blockade of Cuba, 4S3; 
comparative naval forces, 483; 
search for Cervera s squadron, 484; 
blockade of Santiago harbor, 4S5; 
Santiago campaign, 485-490; map, 
489; destruction of Spanish fleet, 
491-493; Spanish surrender, 493; 
Porto Rico campaign, 494; army 
investigation, 494, 495; Sampson- 
Schley controversy,- 495, 496, mili- 
tary lessons, 496. 

Spartans, delay march to Marathon, 
3, 5; assist Syracusans, 47; influ- 
ence, 49. 



Stamford Bridge, battle, 179. 

Stamp Act, passage, 420. 

Stanley, Sir William, surrender to 
Prince of Parma, 235. 

Stanwix, Brigadier, to succor Pitts- 
burg, 417; built Fort Pitt, 418. 

States-General, the, convened in 
France. 326. 

Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, lands 
in Ireland, 205. 

Stuart, J. E. B., raid during Gettys- 
burg campaign, 444, 445, 447, 455. 

Suffolk, Lord, at Orleans, 211. 

Sumter, Fort, bombardment, 432. 

Sweden, before the battle of Pultowa, 
2S4; origin, 2S5. 

Syracuse, siege, 36, 3S, 48; strength, 
37; scorn Athenian invasion, 44; 
plan, 48 ; saved by Spartans, 49, 
50; repulse Demosthenes, 53; be- 
sieged by Carthaginians, 55, 56. 

Tallard, Marshal, leads French 
forces into Bavaria, 270, 273; be- 
wildered by Marlborough, 273; 
joins Marshal Marsin, 274; at Blen- 
heim, 277; defeat, 2S1. 

Talleyrand, announces Napoleon's es- 
cape from Elba, 346; represented 
Louis XVIII., 347. 

Tann, General von der, at Sedan, 
461, 462. 

Taylor, Henry C, in Spanish War, 486. 

Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, 144; 
at Chalons, 155; death, 156. 

Th;errv, Augustin, quoted, 171, 172. 

Thirty Years' War, 257. 

Tiberius recalled from command in 
Germany, 122. 

Ticonderoga, captured by Burgoyne, 
309; Montcalm's victory, 410. 

Timoleon defeats Carthaginians, 56. 

Togo, Admiral, attacks Russian fleet 
at Port Arthur, 499; defeats Ro- 
jestvensky at battle of Tsu-shima, 
502, 503. 

Tolly, Barclay de, commands army of 
the Middle* Rhine, 348. 

Tourelles, besieged, 210, 211; Sir Wil- 
liam Gladsdale commands English, 
219; defence, 221; captured, 222. 






INDEX. 



- 1 - 
on 



Tours, battle, 159; results of victory, 
160; account of battle, 165-168. 

Trojan, Emperor of Rome, 141. 

Troyes, Treaty of, concluded, 206, 207. 

Tsu-shima, battle, 498-504; Admiral 
Rojestvensky leaves Cronstadt, 499; 
Russian plan of action, 500; vessels 
engaged, 502; engagement, 502, 503; 
Japanese victory, 503; treaty of 
peace, 504. 

United States, power, 229; war 
with England (1812), 342, 428; 
independence, 305, 326, 421, 428; 
war with Tripoli, 428; purchase of 
Louisiana, 428; prepares for war 
with France, 428; treaty with 
Spain, 429; war with Mexico, 431; 
Civil War: Vicksburg, 433-441; Get- 
tysburg, 442-457; war with Spain, 
474-496. 

Utrecht treaty, 295, 410. 

Valmy, battle, 327-341; Kellermann's 
monument, 327; importance, 328; 
French army, 329, 331; the Car- 
magnoles, 330; plan of operations, 
332; allied army, 332; Longwy and 
Verdun captured, 333; description 
of battle, 340, 341; French victory, 
341; results of battle, 341; Goethe's 
observations, 341. 

Varus, Quintilius, commands Roman 
forces in Germany, 123; character, 
123; army, 124; vanity, 124; 
marches against rebels, 125; prog- 
ress impeded, 126; attacked by 
Arminius, 127; suicide, 128; army 
destroyed, 129. 

Vicksburg, 433-441; Grant's original 
plan, 434; destruction of Holly 
Springs depot, 434; Sherman's fail- 
ure, 434; McClernand's command, 
435; Grant's command, 435; to- 
pography, 435; Confederate forces, 
436; Federal forces, 436; tentative 
operations, 436, 437; running the 
batteries, 437; Grant crosses river 
below, 4aS; Federal victories in rear, 
438; siege\ 439, 440; surrender, 440; 
losses, 441 



Victoria, Queen, marriage, 430. 

Villeroy, Marshal, leads French forces 
in Flanders, 270; threatens town 
of Huys, 272; bewildered by Marl- 
borough, 273. 

Virginius affair, 474, 475. 

Warren, G. K, in Gettysburg cam- 
paign, 451; wounded, 453. 

Washington, George, commands army 
at Cambridge, 421; at Yorktown, 
422, 424, 425. 

Waterloo, compared with struggle at 
Zama, 85; importance of victory, 
345, 363; Napoleon returns from 
Elba, 346; allied powers prepare 
for war, 347; Bliicher and Welling- 
ton occupy Belgium, 348; map of 
country, 351; Bliicher concentrates 
forces upon Ligny, 353; Wellington 
at Quatre Bras, 353; Bliicher baf- 
fles Grouchy, 362, 379, 380 «.; 
army under Wellington, 363; map, 
369; Wellington's disposition of 
forces, 367-369; French army, 370; 
Napoleon's arrangement of forces, 
371; battle delayed, 375; Belgian 
troops, 376; Napoleon commences 
action, 376; flight of Dutch and 
Belgian troops, 377; British in- 
fantry under Picton, 377; charge of 
Union Brigade, 377; capture of 
Ney's guns, 378; Prussian army, 
378; cavalry charges, 380; French 
take La Haye Sainte, 382; Young 
Guard, 382; losses and heroism, 
383, 389; Macready's narrative, 
383-387; Old Guard, 389, 391; Im- 
perial Guards, 390; British Guards, 
390 ; Wellington's advance, 391 ; 
Napoleon's flight, 393; retreat, 394- 
399; losses, 399; anecdotes, 400- 
405 ; sufferings of wounded, 402, 
403; remarks, 407. 

Weedon, General, at Yorktown, 423. 

Wellington, Duke of, compared with 
Scipio, 85; admiration accorded, 86; 
English representative at Vienna, 
347; allied troops commanded by, 
348, 363; their positions, 349; moves 
troops to Quatre Bras, 353; in- 



518 



INDEX. 



terview with Bliicher, 357 ; halts 
at Waterloo, 361 ; confidence in 
Bliicher, 362; disposition of forces, 
367-369; precautions, 371; previous 
career, 374; the battle, 376; French 
defeated, 393 ; feelings after the bat- 
tle, 399; advance upon Paris, 407. 

Weyler y Nicolau, in Cuba, 475 

William Henry, Fort, taken by Mont- 
calm, 410, 411. 

William III., King, forms "Grand 
Alliance," 258; death, 258. 

Williams, Sir Roger, advises Queen 
Elizabeth, 240. 

William the Conqueror, succeeds to 
dukedom of Normandy, 170; par- 
entage, 171; competitor for crown 
of England, 175; conduct towards 
Harold, 176; threat to avenge Har- 
old's disregard of oath, 177, 178; 
submits claim to the pope, 178 ; 
army, 179, 191; early disasters, 
180; march to Hastings, 181, 182; 



address to army, 189; endeavors 

to reach King Harold, 199; valor, 

201; crowned King of England, 

204; reign, 204. 
Wimpffen, General von, at Sedan, 

464, 468, 470, 471. 
Wolfe, General, Quebec expedition, 

412; character, 413; force, 414; 

attacks Beauport redoubts, 417; 

illness, 418; death, 419. 
Wood, Dr. Leonard, Rough Riders, 

480; in Santiago campaign, 487, 488. 

Xerxes, King of Persia, invades 
Greece, 33. 

Yorktown, siege, 422-428; besieging 
forces, 423-425; Cornwallis surren- 
ders, 425; joy over victory, 425, 
426; results, 426-428. 

Zama, comparison between Waterloo 
and, 85. 



THE END 



